er
get my place. Annas is all powerful. Yet have I a plan."

"What planneth thou?" and Antipas leaned across the table with eager
eyes on the Jew.

"Let these three mighty ones--Herod of Tiberias, Zador Ben Amon of
Jerusalem and Pilate of Rome--form a secret union for their profit and
for breaking the power of Annas. What thinkest thou of such a union?"

"Thou art the son of a fool," and Antipas straightened up stiffly.

"A fool thou sayest? And wherefore?" Zador Ben Amon asked, somewhat
confused by the sudden change in the attitude of his host.

Antipas leaned forward. His lips were securely drawn over the points
of his teeth. His eyes, somewhat watery from much drinking, looked
with anger into the steady eye of Zador. "Pilate," he began, "doth
come riding to the Passover in a gold inlaid ivory chariot and with
royal lictors, and in the Palace of Herod the Great doth he revel. Who
builded this palace? What man should be seated on its throne?" He
paused and held out his cup to the stewart who filled it afresh. "Who
was the friend of Cleopatra and Anthony? Was it not Herod the Great,
father of Antipas? Who went to Rome in a three-decked ship he builded,
was taken to the Roman Senate and made King of the Jews? Was it not
the father of Antipas? Who builded Caesarea at the fountains of
Jordan? Who builded the Temple, the arches, the monuments, the
streets, the aqueducts, the walls, the towers and the Palace of Herod
the Great, King of the Jews? Was it not Herod the Great, father of
Antipas? And when he had died and the worms eaten him who was given
command of the Tower of Antonio? Into whose hands was the Palace of
Herod the Great given? Who is this Pilate--impostor of a Roman? Is he
not the son of a heathen of Seville? Was not his father Marcus Pontius
who deserted his countrymen when Rome made conquest in his land? Was
he not rewarded for his treachery with the sharp-edged pilatus which
gave to him the new name 'Pilate'? Did not the son of this heathen dog
follow Germanicus and through him creep in among the Romans of high
estate? Did he not wed Claudia Procula, granddaughter of Augustus?
And shortly thereafter was he not made Procurator at Jerusalem? Who
should sit in state in Herod's palace in Jerusalem? Antipas, son of
the King of the Jews, who builded it, or Pilate who would grind him
beneath his clanking Roman heel? And wouldst thou have me to form
union with _this_?"

With flushed