eard a voice.
Yet saw I no man. Again I heard the voice like a whisper. Then did
fear lay hold of me lest the tomb be a den of ghosts and glad I was
that the wall on the back was thick. Near this thick wall I put my
back. Then the ghostly voice sounded nearer and I found my ear against
a crack and I listened, for, though great my fear, my curiosity to hear
the speech of ghosts overcame it. And when my ear lay close the voice
was no longer that of a ghost but of a man who hatched a plot which
another who is not a ghost listened to."

"What is the plot?" Lazarus asked again.

"That I learned not though my ears did itch."

"A plot thou hast heard--a plot that hath made thine ears itch, yet
neither dost thou know the plotter nor the plot. The ears of an ass
are thine."

Eli gathered up his bundles. "If the plot shall come to pass then will
thy eyes drop water-jars of tears and thy head know all are not fools
who carry bundles," and he turned toward the court.

"Stay," said Lazarus. "Of a plot thou knowest, yet knowest not. Of a
plotter thou knowest, but knowest not. What dost thou know?"

"Little--save him they whispered against. . . Him I know, and that the
one who hatched the evil did come from the Temple."

"From the Temple!" It was Joseph who spoke and his words were an
exclamation.

"Yea. And the evil one he whispered with is one who knoweth thy friend
Jesus."

"Jesus!" exclaimed Lazarus and Mary in a breath. "Dost thou speak of
_our_ Jesus?"

"A plot against Jesus?" Lazarus asked. "Put thy goods down, thou fool,
and tell what thou knowest."

"Already have I told that for which I was called a fool."

"What hast thou heard? Out with it!" and Lazarus helped Eli unload his
bundles again.

With the party gathered closely about him Eli said, "There is naught to
tell save that some one who hath been much about the Temple did make an
offer of money for knowledge of the hiding-place of Jesus when he is
not at Bethany. To do him harm was the purpose of the evil one, who
did much thick-lipped whispering."

"What harm would this enemy of the Master do to him?" and Mary waited
before Eli for an answer.

"Plotters plot death," he answered shortly, taking up his bundles.

"God of our fathers!" Mary cried. "What doth this mean? Lazarus, my
brother Lazarus, Joseph, Father Joseph--let not harm come to him we
love! Promise me--promise me!" and she held out her hands.

Taking her hands in his Jo