amongst other things, I was sent to investigate.
It was your friend Caleb."

Miriam started so violently that her chisel gave an unexpected effect to
one of Marcus's curls.

"Hush!" she said, glancing towards the sleepers, one of whom had just
snored so loudly that he began to awake at the sound; then added in a
whisper, "They do not know, do they?"

He shook his head and looked puzzled.

"I must speak to you of this matter," she went on with agitation, and in
the same whisper. "No, not now or here, but alone."

"When and where you will," answered Marcus, smiling, as if the prospect
of a solitary conversation with Miriam did not displease him, although
this evil-doing Caleb was to be its subject. "Name the time and place,
lady."

By now the snoring elder was awake, and rising from his chair with a
great noise, which in turn roused the others. Nehushta also rose from
her seat and in doing so, as though by accident, overset a copper tray
on which lay metal tools.

"In the garden one hour after sunset. Nehushta will leave the little
lower door unlocked."

"Good," answered Marcus; then added in a loud voice, "Not so, lady. Ye
gods! what a noise! I think the curl improved by the slip. It looks less
as though it had been waxed after the Egyptian fashion. Sirs, why do
you disturb yourselves? I fear that to you this long waiting must be as
tedious as to me it seems unnecessary."

The sun was down, and the last red glow had faded from the western sky,
which was now lit only by the soft light of a half-moon. All the
world lay bathed in peace and beauty; even the stern outlines of the
surrounding mountains seemed softened, and the pale waters of the Dead
Sea and the ashen face of the desert gleamed like silver new cast from
the mould. From the oleanders and lilies which bloomed along the edge
of the irrigation channels, and from the white flowers of the glossy,
golden-fruited orange trees, floated a perfume delicious to the sense,
while the silence was only broken from time to time by the bark of a
wandering dog or the howl of a jackal in the wilderness.

"A very pleasant night--to talk about Caleb," reflected Marcus, who had
reached the appointed spot ten minutes before the time, as he strolled
from the narrow belt of trees that were planted along the high, outer
wall, into the more open part of the garden. Had Marcus chanced to
notice that this same Caleb, walking softly as a cat, and keeping with
great care in the