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The sight he saw drove the blood from his face and left him white and haggard. The King and the Grand Vizier were playing a foursome against the Pro and the High Priest of Hec, and the Vizier had just laid the High Priest a dead stymie. Ascobaruch tottered to the chariot. "Take me back," he muttered, pallidly. "I've forgotten something!"
All over the green expanse could be seen men in strange robes, moving to and fro in couples and bearing in their hands mystic wands. Some searched restlessly in the bushes, others were walking briskly in the direction of small red flags. A sickening foreboding of disaster fell upon Ascobaruch. The charioteer seemed surprised at the question. "Yon's the muneecipal linx," he replied. "The what?"
The meeting had dispersed after passing a unanimous vote of censure on King Merolchazzar, and the High Priest was refreshing himself in the vestry for the meeting had taken place in the Temple of Hec with a small milk and honey. "Some speech!" began Ascobaruch in his unpleasant, crafty way. None knew better than he the art of appealing to human vanity. The High Priest was plainly gratified.
But you just stand up and the words come fluttering out of you like bees out of a barn. I simply cannot understand it. The thing gets past me." "Oh, it's just a knack." "A divine gift, I should call it." "Perhaps you're right," said the High Priest, finishing his milk and honey. He was wondering why he had never realized before what a capital fellow Ascobaruch was.
I'm a peaceable man, and I've made it a rule never to mix in politics, but if you happened to say to me as we were sitting here, just as one reasonable man to another if you happened to say, 'Ascobaruch, I think it's time that definite steps were taken, I should reply frankly, 'My dear old High Priest, I absolutely agree with you, and I'm with you all the way. You might even go so far as to suggest that the only way out of the muddle was to assassinate Merolchazzar and start with a clean slate."
The High Priest stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I am bound to say I never thought of going quite so far as that." "Merely a suggestion, of course," said Ascobaruch. "Take it or leave it. I shan't be offended. If you know a superior excavation, go to it. But as a sensible man and I've always maintained that you are the most sensible man in the country you must see that it would be a solution.
How could it be otherwise? It is true that much good wine has been made this year. But who would send it in for thy rewards? Thou knowest Ascobaruch who hath the great vineyards in the north, and Cohahiroth who sendeth wine every year from the south over the Persian Golf. Their wines are so delicious that ten measures thereof are sold for an hundred talents of silver.
Could it be done?" "Could it!" Ascobaruch uttered a hideous laugh. "Could it! Arouse me in the night-watches and ask me! Question me on the matter, having stopped me for that purpose on the public highway!
"Oh, I don't know," he said, modestly. "Yessir!" said Ascobaruch. "Considerable oration! What I can never understand is how you think up all these things to say. I couldn't do it if you paid me. The other night I had to propose the Visitors at the Old Alumni dinner of Oom University, and my mind seemed to go all blank.
"Now," said Merolchazzar, "slow back and keep your e'e on the ba'!" A month later, Ascobaruch returned from his trip. He had received no word from the High Priest announcing the success of the revolution, but there might be many reasons for that. It was with unruffled contentment that he bade his charioteer drive him to the palace.
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