before. In whose heart were such ideas born?"

"They were not born in the heart," said Barabbas. "The heart is dumb.
Dismas, if I must dwell in desert caves and do nothing, I must search
out and inquire. I break stones in pieces and search. I pull the
corpses of animals and men to pieces and inquire. And I find that
things are not as the old writings tell us. There's only one Messiah:
the truth. Man is an animal like any of the lower creatures--that is
the truth. Ha, ha, ha!"

A shudder went through Dismas's body. How he disliked this man! And
yet, on account of his companion's strong will, and through the habit
of years, he could not free himself. He had often fled away from him,
but had always come back. Now he stood up, lifted his arms to heaven,
and exclaimed: "Oh, Lord, in the holy heights, save me!"

"Invoke the stars," said Barabbas, with a scornful laugh. "You'll be
right then. They know nothing of you and your God. They're made of
common dust. They themselves, and all the beings on them, live in the
same base struggle as does our earth and everything on it. An enormous
dust-heap, swarming with vermin, that's all."

Dismas sat on his stone with folded hands, pale as a corpse.

"Barabbas, my comrade," he said at last, "it is your bad angel that
speaks."

"Why don't you praise him, Dismas? Why don't you shout for joy? My
message has redeemed you. You think because you've attacked, slain,
and plundered unsuspecting travellers that everlasting hell must be