must make this one life
great----"

"If there's no life to come," said Barabbas, "we must live this one
out. That is nature, and to deny it folly. No, I will enjoy my life.
Enjoyment is a duty."

"That is what bad men think," said Dismas.

"There are no bad men," exclaimed Barabbas, "and no good men either.
Friend, look at the lamb, he harms no one; he would rather be torn to
pieces by the lion than tear the lion to pieces himself. Is he good,
therefore? No, only weak. And the lion who kills and eats the lamb?
Is he bad, therefore? No, only strong. And so it is his right to
destroy the weak. Strength is the only virtue, and the only good deed
is to exterminate the weak."

When he made an end of speaking, the other turned his face towards him
and said: "What extraordinary words are those? I never heard such talk
before. In whose heart were such ideas born?"

"They were not born in the heart," said Barabbas. "The heart is dumb.
Dismas, if I must dwell in desert caves and do nothing, I must search
out and inquire. I break stones in pieces and search. I pull the
corpses of animals and men to pieces and inquire. And I find that
things are not as the old writings tell us. There's only one Messiah:
the truth. Man is an animal like any of the lower creatures--that is
the truth. Ha, ha, ha!"

A shudder went through Dismas's body. How he disliked this man! And
yet, on account of his companion's strong will, and through the habit
of years, he could not free himself. He had often fled away from him,
but had always come back. Now he stood up, lifted his arms to heaven,
and exclaimed: "Oh, Lord, in the holy heights, save me!"

"Invoke the stars," said Barabbas, with a scornful laugh. "You'll be
right then. They know nothing of you and your God. They're made of
common dust. They themselves, and all the beings on them, live in the
same base struggle as does our earth and everything on it. An enormous
dust-heap, swarming with vermin, that's all."

Dismas sat on his stone with folded hands, pale as a corpse.

"Barabbas, my comrade," he said at last, "it is your bad angel that
speaks."

"Why don't you praise him, Dismas? Why don't you shout for joy? My
message has redeemed you. You think because you've attacked, slain,
and plundered unsuspecting travellers that everlasting hell must be
your portion. My strong message does away with hell. Do you see that?"

The other replied: "I heard a prophet