"
"A great mercy!" Ben Joreb answered; "a man's mercy to him; a God's
mercy to his people."
"And what think you?" said Antipater, turning to Manius.
"I agree; 'twould be a mercy, but a risky enterprise," said the Roman.
"I would risk my head to save him a day of pain," said the treacherous
son of Herod. "You love him not as I do or you would brave all to end
his misery."
There was now half a moment filled with a long, piercing cry from
beyond the walls of the palace until Antipater spoke, a tiger look in
his face again. "Put the lance into him, my good carnifex," he
growled, striking with clinched fist. "Again, now; and again, and
again."
He listened for a breath, and as silence came he added, "There, that
will do."
Neither spoke for a little time.
"I wish I could make you feel how dearly I love my father," he went on,
addressing his friends now and hiding his claws with revolting guile
and all unconscious that he had shown them.
Again a breath of silence, in which Manius thought of the black leopard
when he lay making those playful and caressing movements on the floor.
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