she
dropped back on to the pillow. And in this hour of stillness she
would have slept; but even while Israel was lifting up his heart in
thankfulness to God, that He was making the way of her great journey
easy out of the land of silence into the land of speech, a storm broke
over the town. Through many hot days preceding it had been gathering in
the air, which had the echoing hollowness of a vault. It was loud and
long and terrible. First from the direction of Marteel, over the four
miles which divide Tetuan from the coast, came the warning which the sea
sends before trouble comes to the land--a deep moan as of waters falling
from the sky. Next came the moan of the wind down the valley that opens
on the gate called the Bab el Marsa, and along the river that flows to
the port. Then came the roll of thunder, like a million cannons, down
the gorges of the Reef mountains and across the plain that stretches
far away to Kitan. Last of all, the black clouds of the sky emptied
themselves over the town, and the rain fell in floods on the roof of the
house and on the pavement of the patio, and leapt up again in great loud
drops, making a noise to the ear like to the tramp, tramp, tramp of a
hidden multitude. Thus sound after sound broke over the darkness of the
night in a thousand awful voices, now near, now far, now loud, now
low, now long, now short, now rising, now falling, now rushing, now
running--a mighty tumult and a fearsome anarchy.

At last Naomi's terror was redoubled. Every sound seemed to smite her
body as a blow. Hitherto she had known one sense only, the sense of
touch, and though now she knew the sense of hearing also, she continued
to refer all sensations to feeling. At the sound of the sea she put out
her arms before her; at the sound of the wind she buried her face in
her palms; and at the sound of the thunder she lifted her hands as if to
protect her head.

Meanwhile, Israel sat beside her and cherished her close at his bosom.
He yearned to speak words of comfort to her, soft words of cheer, tender
words of love, gentle words of hope.

"Be not afraid, my daughter! It is only the wind, it is only the rain;
it is only the thunder. Once you loved to run and race in them. They
shall not harm you, for God is good, and He will keep you safe. There,
there, my little heart! See, your father is with you. He will guard you.
Fear not, my child, fear not!"

Such were the words which Israel yearned to speak in Naomi's