visible, was not left a moment either to gaze or to listen.

"Dog of a Gentile--I have you!" hissed a voice from behind; and Lycidas
was instantly engaged in a life or death hand-to-hand struggle with
Abishai the Jew, who, as soon as he could steal away from his
companions at the grave, had followed and dogged the steps of the
Greek. It was almost a hopeless struggle for the young Athenian; his
enemy surpassed him in strength of muscle and weight of body, wore a
dagger, and was determined to use it, though some wild sense of honour
had prevented Abishai from stabbing the unconscious youth without
warning, when he stole upon him from behind. But the love of life is
strong, and desperation gives almost supernatural power. Lycidas felt
the keen blade strike him once and again, he felt his blood gushing
warm from the wounds, he caught the arm uplifted to smite, with
despair's fierce energy he endeavoured to wrench the murderous weapon
away. The two men went wrestling, struggling, straining each sinew to
the utmost, drawing nearer, inch by inch, to the brink of the steep
descent. Abishai dropped his dagger in the struggle, and could not
stoop to attempt to recover it in the darkness, but he grasped with his
sinewy hand the gasping youth by the locks, and, with a gigantic
effort, hurled him over the edge.

With dilating eyeballs and a look of fierce triumph Abishai leant over
the brink, trying to distinguish through the deepening gloom the
lifeless form of his victim.

"I have silenced the Gentile once and for ever!" cried the fierce
Hebrew through his clenched teeth. "I said not 'Content' when the
question was put, but I say it now!" He drew back from the edge, wiped
the moisture from his heated brow, and left a red stain upon it.

"Ere I go to rest," said the stern Jew, "I will let Hadassah know that
my arm has achieved that safety for her and our brave companions which
her wild folly would have sacrificed. I marvel that Judas, son of
Mattathias, a bold man, and deemed a wise one, should have let himself
be swayed from his purpose by the idle words of a woman. But I trow,"
added Abishai with a grim smile, "that a glance from Zarah went further
with him than all the pleadings of Hadassah. It is said amongst us,
their kinsmen, that these twain shall be made one; but this is no time
for marrying and giving in marriage, when the unclean swine is
sacrificed on God's altar, and the shadow of the idol darkens the
Te