CHAPTER XXVIII
BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY
As Clearchus lay upon the broad slab, the voices of his friends seemedto him faint and far away. He tried to rise, but a strange languorweighed him down. Chares seized him and dragged him to his feet.
"Wake up!" cried the Theban. "We still have a chance. You tremblelike a girl."
Clearchus gathered his senses with an effort of will, and the twoGreeks followed Nathan across the roof toward the great wall, againstwhich the prison was built.
Nathan led them straight to the foot of a narrow flight of steps,roughly hewn in the masonry and scarcely discernible a few yards away.Up these he climbed with the agility of a cat. Clearchus, still faintand dizzy, hesitated for a moment, gazing at the sheer height thattowered above his head.
"Forward!" Chares cried behind him. "It is our only hope."
Clearchus set his feet in the narrow steps and followed Nathan,carrying the jailer's spear in his left hand and clinging to eachprojection with his right. More than once his feet slipped and Charessaved him from falling. The steps wound upward almost perpendicularly,and it was evident that they were rarely used, for in places the softbrick had crumbled, leaving wide gaps.
"Look up!" Chares cried desperately, as Clearchus halted at one ofthese dangerous points. "Look up--and remember Artemisia, whom thoualone canst save!"
He had touched the right chord at last. The Athenian's brain clearedat the mention of Artemisia's peril, and he forgot his own. The wallno longer seemed to waver before his eyes. All doubt of his ability topass where Nathan had passed before him vanished from his mind, and hegained the top with an even pulse.
They paused for a moment to get their bearings. Far beneath them theysaw the starlight trembling on the broad sweep of the Euphrates, beyondwhich for miles lay a level country, dotted with trees and fields.Behind them spread the sleeping city, an endless succession of roofsand towers. Here and there a torch glimmered like a firefly. Thecrest of the wall, upon which they stood and where four chariots mighthave been driven abreast without crowding, was apparently deserted.
The sound of shouting rose from the direction of the prison. They sawa cluster of torches issue from the main entrance and scatter in everydirection.
"They are giving the alarm," Nathan said, "but I think we shall havetime to disappoint them. There is a rope waiting for us where theriver touches the wall, and at its lower end we shall find a boat."
The river was several hundred yards distant from the spot where theystood. Before they could reach the place where the rope was concealed,they must traverse nearly a quarter of a mile. Between them and safetystood one of the guard-houses built for the sentries whose duty it wasto patrol the wall night and day. Still worse, they must pass theentrance of a broad flight of steps that led downward into the city andformed the usual means of ascent to the top of the wall.
It had been Nathan's plan to come up by these steps and gain the ropewithout passing the guard-house. The obstinacy of the jailer haddisarranged everything. It was of the first importance that theyshould reach the rope before the sentinels on the wall could learn whathad happened, or the guards from below could mount.
Like shadows they sped along the top of the wall, holding as near aspossible to the outer edge so as not to be seen from the city. Outsidethe guard-house a sentry stood, craning his neck to see what was goingon beneath him to cause all the shouting. They stole by behind hisback without arousing his attention.
They had fled past the head of the stairway and were congratulatingthemselves on their good fortune when they came suddenly face to facewith a returning sentry, slowly pacing his beat. The man was as muchsurprised as they and seemed in doubt as to whether they were friendsor foes. Before he could make up his mind, Chares gripped him by thethroat and the broad blade of the jailer's spear buried itself in hisheart. He had uttered no cry. Chares dragged the body under theparapet that had been built where the wall overhung the river toprotect the defenders from the archers who might be sent to attack thecity from ships.
Crouching in the shadow of this elevation, they went on at a slackenedpace, expecting every moment to come upon the rope. It was nowhere tobe found. The shouting from the city now came clearly up from thestaircase as the guards ascended. Finally Nathan paused and lookeddoubtfully about him.
"It should be very near here," he said, "but I do not see it."
"Then there is nothing for it but to take as many of them with us as wecan," Chares said, rising to his full height. "Zeus, how my backaches! I hate this skulking."
Apparently the sentinel at the guard-house whom they had passedunderstood at last what was the matter. He roused the rest of theguard. Clearchus and Nathan pulled Chares down into the shadow. Theywere so near that they could hear what was said.
"Captives have escaped! They are coming up by the prison stairway!"the man told his companions in an excited voice. "They are asking usto stop them. Boupares himself is on his way up."
The men came tumbling out of the guard-house and ran to the inner edgeof the wall, shouting down with much gesticulation that they would meetthe fugitives. Then they hastened back toward the prison.
"Much good that will do them," Chares laughed.
"We have still a few moments," Clearchus said. "Where was the rope tobe?"
"Here--opposite the Tower of Baal," Nathan replied.
"Look on the outside of the wall; it may be there," the Atheniansuggested.
Nathan climbed upon the parapet and looked over.
"Here it is," he cried joyfully. "Follow me!"
As he spoke, he slipped over the edge of the wall and vanished.
"Follow him, Chares," Clearchus said. "Go quickly!"
"You first," the Theban answered doggedly.
"No," Clearchus answered with firmness. "It is my turn to guard therear. I shall not stir until you are over the wall."
"Very well, have your way," Chares replied.
He vaulted upon the parapet and looked down. The rope had beenattached to a bar of iron driven firmly into the bricks near thecoping, and it dangled from between his feet into the gulf beneath him.The cord seemed slender to sustain his weight, but there was no time inwhich to test it. Swinging himself over the edge, he grasped the barand then the rope, letting himself down hand over hand, with his feetagainst the rough surface of the wall. From the twitching of the cordin his hands, he knew that Nathan had not yet reached the bottom. Hewondered how long it would be before the rope would break and send himheadlong into the dark abyss.
Clearchus, left alone behind the parapet, flattened his body in theshadow and waited. He had seen Chares begin his descent, and he knewthat the rope would not sustain the weight of all three at the sametime. He resolved to allow Chares an opportunity to reach the foot ofthe wall before he himself started down. He counted upon the mistakethat the sentries had made, in going back to the prison staircase intheir search, to give him time.
Hardly had Chares disappeared before a company of soldiers, withtorches in their hands, emerged from the head of the great stairway.The glare searched every corner on top of the wall, and the Atheniansaw that concealment was no longer possible.
He knew that he must act promptly. The faces of the new arrivals wereturned toward the sentinels, who were still engaged in searching aboutthe prison stairway. It could be only a few moments before thefutility of further effort in that direction must become evident tothem, and the hunt would turn toward where he lay.
Should he attempt to gain the great staircase and slip into the city,where the Israelites might hide him, at least for a time? It would beimpossible to evade the soldiers who were still coming up. Hedismissed the idea from his mind.
Possibly he could escape along the southern stretch of wall. Beyondhim at a distance there seemed to be a bridge, or causeway, connectingthe wall with the enormous mass of earth and bricks that upheld theHanging Gardens. The groves of palms and the tangle of shrubb
ery thatcrowned the Gardens might conceal him, even though the place was withinthe precincts of the palace itself.
He was about to try this plan and had already partly risen to put itinto execution, when he saw the guard turning out at a station betweenhim and the causeway. His chance of flight in that direction was cutoff.
He could hear the chafing of the rope against the bricks on the otherside of the parapet. Chares was still lowering himself toward theriver. To try the rope now would be not only to endanger the lives ofhis two friends by overstraining the cord, but to reveal their mode ofescape and expose them to certain death, since the guard would lose notime in cutting it.
Clearchus felt that he had been caught in a trap from which there wasno outlet. He thought of the words the jailer had used in describingthe death allotted to them. He thought of Artemisia, defenceless inTyre. A vision of the life he had hoped to lead in the pleasant cityof his birth, with her at his side, flitted through his mind. The Godshad bestowed upon him the hope of happiness that was not to befulfilled. Chares would tell Artemisia how he died. At least shewould know that he had given his life for his friend.
So ran the young man's thoughts as he lay awaiting the moment ofdiscovery. His mind was made up. They would never take him back tothe prison. Perhaps his friends might recover his body and give itburial amid the groves beyond the river.
Although the time seemed long, in reality only a few minutes passedbefore the portly form of Boupares, supported on either side by astalwart soldier, appeared upon the platform at the head of the broadstair. The governor was out of breath and also out of patience. Theknowledge that he would find it difficult to account for the loss ofthe prisoners weighed upon his mind.
The guards crowded about him with explanations and excuses. No tracecould be found of the fugitives, they told him. It was certain theyhad not reached the top of the wall. If they had, they must havewings, since they had disappeared, leaving no trace.
"Search, you dogs!" Boupares gasped. "A thousand darics to the man whofinds them!"
The moment was at hand. Clearchus unclasped the fibula that fastenedthe chiton upon his shoulder and drew his feet out of his sandals.
There was a cry from one of the guards. He had found the body of thesentinel. A group gathered about it to see. It was proof that thefugitives had passed along the wall, and all eyes were directed towardthe Athenian's hiding-place.
Clearchus let fall his garments and with a bound gained the top of theparapet. The red light of the torches shone full upon his nakedfigure, gleaming against the dark sky, as perfect in every line as theform of Ph[oe]bus Apollo. For an instant the soldiers were dumb withastonishment and superstitious dread. The shape had appeared wherethere had been nothing a moment before. It seemed to them that it mustbe that of a God. Then one of them caught sight of the abandonedchiton and the spell was broken.
"Seize him! Strike him down!" they cried.
"Take him alive!" bellowed Boupares.
Clearchus turned his back upon them and gave a single glance at thewide sweep of water that eddied and gurgled at the foot of the greatwall, how far below him he dared not guess. A javelin hissed past himand was swallowed by the darkness. With muscles as firm as steel, hetook two steps forward and shot out from the dizzy height.
He heard the cry of astonishment and involuntary alarm from thesoldiers behind him. The light of the torches flashed in his eyes, andthen fled suddenly upward.
He looked down upon the wrinkled surface of the river. The impetus ofhis leap had carried him out beyond the slope of the wall, and he sawthat he would strike the water as he had planned, instead of beingdashed to pieces.
The rushing air blinded him like a mighty wind. He heard its roar inhis ears. Mechanically he pressed the palms of his hands togetherbelow his head, and stiffened and straightened his body so that itmight offer no surface of resistance in the plunge. Then he knew nomore.
Faintly the cry of the guards floated downward. Their torches twinkledover the parapet. Chares, who, with aching arms, was clinging to thelast few fathoms of the rope, looked upward. So did Nathan, pausing inhis task of fitting a pair of oars to the rowlocks of a small boat thathe had pushed out from the wall.
They saw the form of Clearchus as it shot downward from the sky. Theysaw it strike the water not twenty feet from them, leaving a circle offoam, with hardly a splash to mark where it had fallen, so straight andtrue was its descent.
Chares let the end of the rope slip through his hands and leaped intothe boat. With a few rapid strokes Nathan brought the little craft tothe centre of the widening ripple, where the bubbles were still rising.Both leaned over the gunwale, straining their eyes for sight of thebody in the dark water.
A minute passed, and another, while they held their breath. ThenNathan uttered a cry.
"There he is!" he shouted, pointing downward.
It was only a glimmer of white under the ripple, which showed for aninstant and was gone; but Chares plunged from the boat and disappearedbeneath the surface. When he rose, he held the body of his friendacross his arm, hanging limp and apparently lifeless. Nathan drew itinto the boat and then helped Chares to his place in the stern.
"Is he dead, think you?" the Theban asked, taking the form across hisknees as though it were that of a child.
"There is no mark on him; he may be only stunned," Nathan replied,resuming his oars.
Chares gazed at the pale face, with the dripping hair streaming backfrom its temples, and, bending forward, placed his ear over the heart.
"It beats," he cried. "He lives! Pull away, Nathan, and let thejackals howl!"
Arrows and javelins struck the water around the boat, but there waslittle danger from the marksmen above, unless some missile should findthem by chance. The craft was almost indistinguishable from the top ofthe wall.
Nathan worked hard at the oars, while Chares rolled the body ofClearchus on his knees. Then he rubbed the pale limbs briskly and byno means gently until the blood began to circulate again. At lastClearchus opened his eyes and drew a deep breath.
"Is this the Styx?" he asked faintly. "Is the story true then, afterall?"
"Not yet," Chares replied, with a laugh. "Your time has not yet come.You are dreaming."
Clearchus turned his head and saw the precipice of the mighty wall,rising black toward the stars and crowned with the red glow of thetorches.
"Did I dive from there?" he asked wonderingly; "or is that, too, adream?"
"It is no dream," Chares replied, "but a deed that will be toldthroughout the army for the Companions to envy. Give me the oars,Nathan; I need exercise."
Nathan yielded the oars, and the tough blades bent as the Theban threwhis weight upon them. The boat sped through the water toward a groveof trees that stood like a patch of darker shadow on the other shore.From behind they could hear the clank of levers, and they knew theriver-gate was being opened. Boupares had ordered pursuit; but theywere a mile away before the first of the biremes shot out from theportal. A few minutes more and they had reached the friendly grove andentered the mouth of one of the numerous canals which formed a networkthrough the plain as complicated as the Cretan labyrinth.
"Now let them search," said Nathan. "I would not stand in Boupares'shoes to-morrow!"