Read Online Poisoned Honey: A Story of Mary Magdalene by Beatrice Gormley - Free Book Online

around the gate. “That fellow wanted everyone to like him.”
    But he laughed when Matthew suggested that the captain could help keep order around the tollgate. “Me, work for the stinking Romans? I’d rather eat donkey dung.” As Matthew stared at him, he added in a friendly tone, “No offense meant. Everyone has to make a living.” He explained that his patrol regularly checked this section of the highway for rebels. “So I’ll be seeing you again—if you last at this job.”
    As the captain strolled off, Matthew cursed under hisbreath. But there was no time to waste. He ordered his men to stop the traffic on either side of the gate while he stood in the gate itself and began collecting tolls.
    An hour later, Matthew and his two men were soaked with sweat, dirty with road dust, and hoarse with shouting, but they hadn’t managed to force more than a few unlucky travelers to pay tolls. The rest of them dodged the toll collector as skillfully as if they’d practiced together beforehand. First, one of the horses pulling a carriage dropped to its knees in the gate, blocking the entrance. When Matthew called his servants to help clear that roadblock, a whole camel caravan slipped around one side of the gate. When Matthew ran after the camels, a stream of heavily laden donkeys escaped the toll on the other side of the gate. Meanwhile, a flock of beggars ducked in and out of the traffic, adding to the confusion.
    Matthew was getting really angry … and really worried. At this rate, he wasn’t doing any better than the last toll collector. How was he going to pay for the rent on his villa, and his furnishings, and the extra servants?
    Curse those lawless travelers! How dare they use this well-built highway without paying? Curse the Romans! If they expected him to collect their tolls, why weren’t they here to back him up? Matthew thought of his father, and he knew how Alphaeus would solve the problem. He’d call up histhugs with their heavy sticks. Matthew pushed the thought away.
    As Matthew stopped to mop the sweat from his forehead, an older man rode up on a donkey. “Good morning, toll collector.” He gazed at the scrambling tangle of toll evaders, making
tsk-tsk
sounds with his tongue. His deep-set black eyes, above his trimmed gray beard, had a shrewd gleam. “What a disgrace! This generation has no respect for law and order.”
    “Good morning, sir,” said Matthew. “You’re so right. But if you’ll excuse me, I’d better get back to work.” He started to turn toward the gate.
    “There’s a simple way to stop the illegal traffic,” said the man on the donkey.
    Matthew turned back. He couldn’t be rude to an older man, but he was losing patience. “And what way is that, sir?”
    The man smiled in a kindly way. “Why, throw up a wall on either side of the gate to block the paths. The brush beyond the paths is so dense, they’ll have no choice but to stay on the highway.”
    Matthew considered, squinting past the paths. The brush did seem thicker away from the road. If walls would do the trick, then there’d be no need for thugs with heavy sticks. “How much would that cost?”
    The older man made a gesture to indicate how trivial the cost would be. “Just a rough wall is all you’d need. Five or six workmen could do the job in a day or so.” He proposed a price.
    Matthew exclaimed, “That’s six times the going rate for laborers!”
    “It includes labor
and
materials,” said the other man calmly. “Nothing but the finest basalt rocks. And of course, I guarantee the work. I’ll require only half the price now, and half when it’s finished to your satisfaction.”
    Matthew bargained for a few moments, but he was eager to come to an agreement. As soon as the money changed hands, the older man beckoned to his crew, who had appeared out of nowhere.
    For the rest of the day, the workmen rolled and piled rocks into two dark walls on either side of the tollgate. Matthew collected tolls as