orward with jeers, they
turned with a frown and a significant jerk of the head in the direction
of the man-at-arms. These, also, subsided and passed along the sign of
silence. A leader in the front rank walked away and took a drink,
using his hands as a cup. The whole silent herd followed and did
likewise, solemnly and thoughtfully.

Presently the bolder began to whisper and conjecture among themselves,
hushing the sibilant surmises of the humbler with a cautioning frown.
An old man, who could not lower his voice, quavered a resolve to "ask
and discover," and started toward the soldier to put his resolution
into effect. A wiry old woman seized him and drew him back.

"Wilt thou humiliate him with thy notice, meddler?" she demanded in a
fierce whisper. "See him not, and it will be a mercy to him in his
hour of abasement,--him who hath been balsam to the wound of Israel!"

She turned about and took the road toward Pa-Ramesu, the unprotesting
old man trotting after her. The crowd followed, silent at first, then
softly talkative, and finally, in the distance, singing and noisy once
again.

A careening camel, almost white in the early morning sunshine, broke
the sky-line far up the road leading from Tanis in the north. Very
much nearer, to the west, two single litters, with a staff-bearing
attendant, were approaching.

The camel rider was a Hebrew by the beast that bore him. Egypt had no
liking for the bearer of the Orient's burdens and small acquaintance
with him. Likewise the litters were Hebraic, for the attendant was
bearded. The soldier kept his place before the stela and contemplated
the distance.

The time was not long, though in that land of distances the camel had
far to come from the horizon to the well, until by the soft jarring of
the earth the motionless sentinel knew that the swifter traveler had
arrived. Haste is not common in tropical countries, and the camel had
been put to his limit of speed. A commoner spirit than the soldiers
could not have resisted the impulses of curiosity concerning this hot
haste. But he did not turn his eyes.

The traveler alighted before his mount ceased to move, and undoing his
leathern belt with a jerk, he struck the camel a smart blow on the
shoulder. There was the protesting buzz of a large fly and an angry,
disabled blundering on the sand, silenced by the stamp of a sandal.

"Thou wouldst have it, pest!" the traveler exclaimed. "Thy kind is not
to be pe