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Updated: July 7, 2025
Shortly afterwards Malluch returned to the city. During their absence, a messenger well mounted had been despatched with orders as suggested by Simonides. He was an Arab, and carried nothing written. "Iras, the daughter of Balthasar, sends me with salutation and a message," said a servant to Ben-Hur, who was taking his ease in the tent. "Give me the message."
"The very thing I seek, Malluch." "I see, I see." "Ay, Malluch; would you serve me perfectly, help me to fix the public eye upon our race Messala's and mine." Malluch spoke quickly "It can be done." "Then let it be done," said Ben-Hur. "Enormous wagers offered will answer; if the offers are accepted, all the better." Malluch turned his eyes watchfully upon Ben-Hur.
"Shall I not have back the equivalent of his robbery?" said Ben-Hur, partly to himself. "Another opportunity may not come. And if I could break him in fortune as well as in pride! Our father Jacob could take no offence." A look of determined will knit his handsome face, giving emphasis to his further speech. "Yes, it shall be. Hark, Malluch! Stop not in thy offer of sestertii.
At the tent Ben-Hur remained with the horses while they were being cared for; then, after a plunge in the lake and a cup of arrack with the sheik, whose flow of spirits was royally exuberant, he dressed himself in his Jewish garb again, and walked with Malluch on into the Orchard. There was much conversation between the two, not all of it important. One part, however, must not be overlooked.
"In what he said or did, Malluch, could you in anywise detect his master-idea? You know they peep through cracks close enough to stop the wind." "Give me to understand you," said Malluch, in doubt. "Well, you know we nor speak nor act, much less decide grave questions concerning ourselves, except as we be driven by a motive. In that respect, what made you of him?"
Saw you signs of the weakness in the youth? Did he display moneys coin of Rome or Israel?" "None, none, good master." "Surely, Malluch, where there are so many inducements to folly so much, I mean, to eat and drink surely he made you generous offer of some sort. His age, if nothing more, would warrant that much." "He neither ate nor drank in my company."
Malluch looked into Ben-Hur's face for a hint of meaning, but saw, instead, two bright-red spots, one on each cheek, and in his eyes traces of what might have been repressed tears; then he answered, mechanically, "No!" adding, with fervor, "never;" and a moment after, when he began to recover himself, "If he is an Israelite, never!"
"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."
He stood before them deferentially, and the attitude and the address left it difficult to define his relation to them; the one was that of a servant, the other indicated the familiar and friend. On the other side, Simonides, as was his habit in business, after answering the salutation went straight to the subject. "What of the young man, Malluch?"
On our side be the God of our fathers. Go, good Malluch. Let this not slip." And Malluch, greatly delighted, gave him parting salutation, and started to ride away, but returned presently. "Your pardon," he said to Ben-Hur. "There was another matter.
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