"I am no better than a thief," he cried aloud. "I will go back; and if it needs be that I suffer, God help me, for the flesh is weak."
As he arose to his feet he saw with a shock of surprise that he had paused near to the little rocky knoll, called, from its strange resemblance to a human skull, Golgotha. Upon the bald summit of this place of death stood a cross, and upon the cross hung the figure of a man--naked save for his scanty rags which fluttered fitfully in the light breeze, the clear light of the dawn revealing with ghastly insistency his drawn features, and the purple wounds in his hands and feet. At the foot of the cross lay two Roman soldiers, evidently detailed to watch the dying man; they were snoring loudly, a half-emptied wine-skin upon the grass between them revealing the manner in which they had beguiled the night watches.
As Stephen gazed at this horrible sight, the figure on the cross writhed feebly, the blue lips parted. "God! daylight again, and I live--live--" were the words which gushed out from them in a quavering shriek.
Sick with a fear that he could not control, Stephen approached the cross, treading carefully lest he should awaken the brutal sleepers at its foot.
"Water!" cried the sufferer. "Yes, I see it--a brown stream running over its pebbles--a lake deep and cool. I will hide in it, my hands are burning--no, no, they are dead."
"Here is water," said Stephen in a trembling voice, holding his flask to the lips of the dying wretch--for he hung low, his feet almost touching the ground.
But the man could not drink; he opened his glazing eyes, apparently not seeing the face of angelic pity at his side, for he fell to babbling disconnectedly of many things, mingling frightful curses on his tormentors with prayers to the pagan gods.
Stephen sent up a swift prayer for help; he could pray now. "Listen!" he cried, not heeding the fact that a group of wayfarers had stopped and were regarding him with open-mouthed amazement. "Listen--thou mayest yet be saved. Jesus of Nazareth can save thee! Master, hear--I beseech thee--and save!"
The dim eyes were turned upon him now; there was a gleam of understanding in them. "Art thou--Jesus--of Nazareth?"
"Nay, I am but his servant. Call upon him quickly to forgive--to save."