la will be a competitor?"

Malluch saw now the plan, and all its opportunities for the
humiliation of the Roman; and he had not been true descendant
of Jacob if, with all his interest wakened, he had not rushed
to a consideration of the chances. His voice actually trembled
as he said, "Have you the practise?"

"Fear not, my friend. The winners in the Circus Maximus have held
their crowns these three years at my will. Ask them--ask the best of
them--and they will tell you so. In the last great games the emperor
himself offered me his patronage if I would take his horses in hand
and run them against the entries of the world."

"But you did not?"

Malluch spoke eagerly.

"I--I am a Jew"--Ben-Hur seemed shrinking within himself
as he spoke--"and, though I wear a Roman name, I dared not
do professionally a thing to sully my father's name in the
cloisters and courts of the Temple. In the palaestrae I could
indulge practise which, if followed into the Circus, would become
an abomination; and if I take to the course here, Malluch, I swear
it will not be for the prize or the winner's fee."

"Hold--swear not so!" cried Malluch. "The fee is ten thousand
sestertii--a fortune for life!"

"Not for me, though the prefect trebled it fifty times. Better than
that, better than all the imperial revenues from the first year
of the first Caesar--I will make this race to humble my enemy.
Vengeance is permitted by the law."

Malluch smiled and nodded as if saying, "Right, right--trust me
a Jew to understand a Jew."

"The Messala will drive," he said, directly. "He is committed to
the race in many ways--by publication in the streets, and in the
baths and theaters, the palace and barracks; and, to fix him past
retreat, his name is on the tablets of every young spendthrift in
Antioch."

"In wager, Malluch?"

"Yes, in wager; and every day he comes ostentatiously to practise,
as you saw him."

"Ah! and that is the chariot, and those the horses, with which
he will make the race? Thank you, thank you, Malluch! You have
served me well already. I am satisfied. Now be my guide to the
Orchard of Palms, and give me introduction to Sheik Ilderim the
Generous."

"When?"

"To-day. His horses may be engaged to-morrow."

"You like them, then?"

Ben-Hur answered with animation,

"I saw them from the stand an instant only, for Messala then
drove up, and I might not look at anything else; yet I recognized
them as of the blood which is