ght be cock stealers on occasion they were not kidnappers. Besides, in
frequented lanes and in Tiberias the stealing of a boy was out of the
question, and after seeing one or two cocks killed he could return home,
for he need not wait till the end. He could not help himself, he must
see the great red and yellow bird strike his spur through the head of
his adversary, as the Heeler told him he had never failed to do in many
combats. And he would not fail now, though he was two years old, which
is old for a fighting cock. You see, little Master, the woman said, they
be not as quick on their legs as they get older, nor are they as eager
to fight. To-day's battle will be his last--win or lose--and if he
conies out alive at the end he'll go to the hens, which will be more
frolicsome than having spurs driven into his neck as happened three
months gone by, but it didn't check his spirit, she continued, he killed
his bird and let off one great crowing before he toppled over: we
thought he was gone, but I sucked his wound, bathed it with salt and
water, and you see he's none the worse to-day.

At every turning of the lane the demon seemed to propel Joseph more
violently, till at last he put Azariah out of his head and began to ask
himself if he would be guilty of any great sin in going to see the
cock-fight? Of any sin greater than that of following the custom of the
heathen? His father might be angry, but there'd be no particular
atonement: a fast day, or some study of the law, no more, for he'd be
careful not to raise his eyes to the gods and goddesses that beset the
streets and public places in Tiberias. And on this resolve he followed
the cockers into the city. He was glad to see that many statues stood on
the roofs of the buildings and so far away that no faces or limbs were
visible; but the statues in the streets were difficult to avoid seeing.
Worst of all, the cock-fight that he thought would be fought in the open
air had been arranged to happen in a great building--a theatre or
circus--he did not know which. Joseph had never seen so great a crowd
before, and the servants he had come with pointed out to him their
master among a group of Romans. The Jews from Alexandria, he was told,
came to these games, and this caused his conscience to quicken, for he
had heard his father speak of the Alexandrian Jews as heretics. Azariah
did not hold such orthodox views, but what his tutor's views were about
cock-fighting Joseph did not