Soft like the balm of Gilead."

Turning to one of his followers, Mohammed commanded angrily:

"Seize that singer!"

Dumah heard the exclamation, and was off like the wind, followed by two
or three Moslems, each anxious to secure the victim first, and thus win
the approval of the august Mohammed.

On, on, straight to the house of Amzi fled Dumah. Bursting open the
door, he rushed in, his long hair disordered, his face purple with
running and his eyes wide with terror.

"Save me, Yusuf! Save me, Amzi!" he cried. "Mohammed will kill me!
Mohammed will kill me!"

Yusuf sprang to the door, and the poor fugitive threw himself at Amzi's
feet, clinging to his garments with his thin, white hands.

But the pursuers were already upon him. Yusuf strove in vain to detain
them, to reason with them.

"Can you not see he is a poor artless lad? Can you not have mercy?" he
cried.

"It is the order of the prophet of Allah!" was the response.

Yusuf resisted their entrance with all his might, but, unarmed as he
was, he was quickly thrown down, and the terrified Dumah was dragged
over his body and hurried off to be put in chains in a Moslem cell.

Amzi was distracted. There seemed little hope for Dumah. The small
Jewish band then in Medina could not dare to cope with the overwhelming
numbers of Moslems that swarmed in the streets. If Dumah were delivered
it must be by stratagem; and yet what stratagem could be employed?

Early in the evening Amzi and the priest withdrew to the roof for
consultation.

"You believe that your God is all-powerful--why do you not beseech him
for our poor lad's safety?" cried Amzi passionately.

"I have not ceased to do so since his capture," returned Yusuf. "But it
must be as the Lord willeth. He sees what is best. Even our blessed
Jesus said to the Father, 'Not my will, but thine be done.'"

Amzi was not satisfied. "Can he then be the God of Love that you say, if
he could look upon the death of that poor innocent nor exercise his
power to save him?"

"Amzi, I do not wonder at you for speaking thus. Yet consider. We will
hope the best for our poor singer. May God preserve him and enable us,
as instruments in his hands, to deliver him. But God may see differently
from us in this matter. Who can say that to die would not be gain to
poor Dumah? All witless as he is, he shall have a perfect mind and a
perfect body in the bright hereafter. We know not what is well. We can
only pray and do all in ou