The tetrarch swore that no treasure was hidden in that spot.

"What is concealed there, then?" the proconsul demanded.

"Nothing--that is, only a man--a prisoner."

"Show him to me!"

The tetrarch hesitated to obey, fearing that the Jews would discover his
secret. His reluctance to lift the cover made Vitellius impatient.

"Break it in!" he cried to his lictors. Mannaeus heard the command, and,
seeing a lictor step forward armed with a hatchet, he feared that the
man intended to behead Iaokanann. He stayed the hand of the lictor after
the first blow, and then slipped between the heavy lid and the pavement
a kind of hook. He braced his long, lean arms, raised the cover slowly,
and in a moment it lay flat upon the stones. The bystanders admired the
strength of the old man.

Under the bronze lid was a wooden trap-door of the same size. At a blow
of the fist it folded back, allowing a wide hole to be seen, the mouth
of an immense pit, with a flight of winding steps leading down into the
darkness. Those that bent over to peer into the cavern beheld a vague
and terrifying shape in its depths.

This proved to be a human being, lying on the ground. His long locks
hung over a camel's-hair robe that covered his shoulders. Slowly he rose
to his feet. His head touched a grating embedded in the wall; and as
he moved about he disappeared, from time to time, in the shadows of his
dungeon.