guest while he was still
on the horse and helped him to the ground.

"This," he said solemnly, "is a joyful day in my house."

"What's the big news?" inquired the gambler, and added: "Why so happy?"

"Is it not the day of your return? Isaac! Zacharias!"

They came running as he clapped his hands.

"Set out the oldest wine, and there is a haunch of the deer that was
killed at the gate. Go! And now, Benjamin, did Shakra carry you well and
swiftly?"

"Better than I was ever carried before."

"Then she deserves well of me. Come hither, Shakra, and stand behind me.
Truly, Benjamin, my brother, my thoughts have ridden ten times across
the mountains and back, wishing for your return!"

Connor was sufficiently keen to know that a main reason for the warmth
of his reception was that he had been doubted while he was away, and
while they supped in the patio he was even able to guess who had raised
the suspicion against him. Word was brought that Abraham lay in his bed
seriously ill, but David Eden showed no trace of sympathy.

"Which is the greater crime?" he asked Benjamin a little later. "To
poison the food a man eats or the thoughts in his mind?"

"Surely," said the crafty gambler, "the mind is of more importance than
the stomach."

Luckily David bore the main burden of conversation that evening, for the
brain of Connor was surcharged with impatient waiting. His great plan,
he shrewdly guessed, would give him everything or else ruin him in the
Garden of Eden, and the suspense was like an eating pain. Luckily the
crisis came on the very next day.

Jacob galloped into the patio, and flung himself from the back of Abra.

David and Connor rose from their chairs under the arcade where they had
been watching Joseph setting great stones in place around the border of
the fountain pool. The master of the Garden went forward in some anger
at this unceremonious interruption. But Jacob came as one whose news is
so important that it overrides all need of conventional approach.

"A woman," he panted. "A woman at the gate of the Garden!"

"Why are you here?" said David sternly.

"A woman--"

"Man, woman, child, or beast, the law is the same. They shall not enter
the Garden of Eden. Why are you here?"

"And she rides the gray gelding, the son of Yoruba!"

At that moment the white trembling lips of Connor might have told the
master much, but he was too angered to take heed of his guest.

"That which has once left the Ga