overed his face with his hands and
groaned. The old Christian took him by the arm and led him down from
the wall and back to the cavern under the ruins.

"In thy good time, O Lord," he said to himself, beginning with that
incident a ministry that should not end.

It was dark when the Maccabee came down into the ravine in which the
Greek's house was builded. In the shadow the house cast before it he
saw some one pass the sentry lines. The soldiers looked after that
figure. Presently, emerging into the lesser darkness of the open
streets, it proved to be a woman. The Maccabee stopped. By the
movements, now hurried, now slow, he believed that the night was full
of apprehension for this unknown faring into the disordered city. She
was coming in his direction. He stepped into shadow to see who would
come forth from shelter at such an hour.

The next instant she hurried by his hiding-place and the Maccabee saw
with amazement that it was the girl he loved. He sprang out to speak
to her, but the sound of his footsteps frightened her and she ran.

The whole hilly foreground of Jerusalem was lifted like a black and
impending cloud over her, a-throb with violence and strife. Here and
there were lights on the bosom of the looming blackness, but they only
emphasized the darkness pressing on the outskirts of the radiance.
Every area way and alley had its sound. The air was full of footsteps;
behind her a voice called to her. She dashed by yawning darkness that
was an open alley, hurried toward lights, halted precipitately at
signals of danger and veered aside at unexpected sounds. Once she
stumbled upon the body of a sleeper who had come down into the
darkness of the ravine to pass the night. At her suppressed cry the
Maccabee sprang forward, but she caught herself and ran faster.

He ceased then to attempt to stop her. Curiosity to know what brought
her out into danger at night impelled him to follow near enough to
protect her, but unsuspected until she had revealed her mission to
him.

A hungry dog, probably the last one to escape the execution which had
been meted out to all useless consumers of food, barked at her heels
and brought her up sharply.

The beast in his siege of her circled in the dark around near enough
to the Maccabee hidden in the darkness for him to deliver a vindictive
kick in the staring ribs of the brute. When the howl of the surprised
dog faded up the black ravine, Laodice ran on. The Maccabee, silentl