was some distance behind, the lady spoke.

"Stop the chariot," she commanded.

The young lad obeyed. The woman and child descended to the road.

"I would walk," said the woman. "Drive thou home again, and say thou
naught. See, here is something for thee."

She gave him some money.

The lad did as he was bidden. The mother of Heraklas had known whom
to choose for her charioteer this day.

The chariot receded. It passed out of sight. A distance away from
the road, a man rose and beckoned. It was the messenger of the
morning, disguised, as a beggar.

They went northerly toward the sea. The mother's straining eyes
looked ever forward. How if the Christians had been discovered! How
long the way was!

A faintness seized upon her as they neared the sea. What if her sons
were not there? She hurried forward.

The sea splashed on the rocks at her feet. The salt splay blew in
her face. They were not here! They were not here!

Out of the recesses of the rocks, some forms arose, and Heraklas, as
in a dream, saw his mother, his proud mother--she who had burned
incense to the sun, she who had once held the sacred sistrum in
Amun's temple, she who had taught him to worship Isis, and Osiris,
and Horus, and the River Nile--his mother throw her arms about
Timokles, and kiss his scarred cheek, and sob on the young
Christian's neck, "O my son, I have missed thee so! I have missed
thee so!"

Some ten months later, on the desolate, uninhabited western shore of
what the Hebrews called "Yam Suph, the Sea of Weeds," known now as
the Red Sea, in the country spoken of by the Romans as part of
Ethiopia, now named Nubia, a little company of Christians made ready
their evening meal.

Down on the shore a little girl sang. Her voice rose exultantly in a
hymn of the early Christians:

"Blessed art thou, O Lord; teach me thy judgments.

"O Lord, thou hast been a refuge for us from generation to
generation.

"Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.

"Thou hast healed my soul in that I have sinned against thee."

"O Lord, to thee I flee for refuge. Teach me to do thy will
Because thou art my God; Because thou art the fountain of life In
thy light shall we see light. Extend thy mercy to them that know
thee."

Timokles went toward the shore to call Cocce. As he returned, he saw
his mother standing a little apart from the other Christians and
gazing toward the northwest, in the direction of Egypt, as she had
often gazed since the Christi