“Yes,” John condescendingly repeated, “tell us who will be first, nearest to Jesus.”

Without taking his eyes off Christ, Judas slowly rose, and answered quietly and gravely: 

“I.”

Jesus let His gaze fall slowly.  And quietly striking himself on the breast with a bony finger, Iscariot repeated solemnly and sternly:  “I, I shall be nearest to Jesus!” And he went out.  Struck by his insolent freak, the disciples remained silent; but Peter suddenly recalling something, whispered to Thomas in an unexpectedly gentle voice: 

“So that is what he is always thinking about!  See?”

CHAPTER V

Just at this time Judas Iscariot took the first definite step towards the Betrayal.  He visited the chief priest Annas secretly.  He was very roughly received, but that did not disturb him in the least, and he demanded a long private interview.  When he found himself alone with the dry, harsh old man, who looked at him with contempt from beneath his heavy overhanging eyelids, he stated that he was an honourable man who had become one of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth with the sole purpose of exposing the impostor, and handing Him over to the arm of the law.

“But who is this Nazarene?” asked Annas contemptuously, making as though he heard the name of Jesus for the first time.

Judas on his part pretended to believe in the extraordinary ignorance of the chief priest, and spoke in detail of the preaching of Jesus, of His miracles, of His hatred for the Pharisees and the Temple, of His perpetual infringement of the Law, and eventually of His wish to wrest the power out of the hands of the priesthood, and to set up His own personal kingdom.  And so cleverly did he mingle truth with lies, that Annas looked at him more attentively, and lazily remarked:  “There are plenty of impostors and madmen in Judah.”

“No!  He is a dangerous person,” Judas hotly contradicted.  “He breaks the law.  And it were better that one man should perish, rather than the whole people.”

Annas, with an approving nod, said—­

“But He, apparently, has many disciples.”

“Yes, many.”

“And they, it seems probable, have a great love for Him?”

“Yes, they say that they love Him, love Him much, more than themselves.”

“But if we try to take Him, will they not defend Him?  Will they not raise a tumult?”

Judas laughed long and maliciously.  “What, they?  Those cowardly dogs, who run if a man but stoop down to pick up a stone.  They indeed!”

“Are they really so bad?” asked Annas coldly.

“But surely it is not the bad who flee from the good; is it not rather the good who flee from the bad?  Ha! ha!  They are good, and therefore they flee.  They are good, and therefore they hide themselves.  They are good, and therefore they will appear only in time to bury Jesus.  They will lay Him in the tomb themselves; you have only to execute Him.”