t--eyes of
Joseph glittering. The giant had paused in his work with the stones.

"What are you thinking of, Joseph?" asked the gambler.

Joseph made an indescribable gesture of hate and fear.

"Of the whip!" he said. "I also opened the gate of the Garden. On whose
back will the whip fall this time?"

_CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE_

Near the end of the eucalyptus avenue, and close to the gate, David
dismounted and made Jacob do likewise.

"We may come on them by surprise and listen," he said. "A soft step has
won great causes."

They went forward cautiously, interchanging sharp glances as though they
were stalking some dangerous beast, and so they came within earshot of
the gate and sheltered from view of it by the edge of the cliff. David
paused and cautioned his companion with a mutely raised hand.

"He lived through the winter," Ephraim was saying. "I took him into my
room and cherished him by the warmth of my fire and with rubbing, so
that when spring came, and gentler weather, he was still alive--a great
leggy colt with a backbone that almost lifted through the skin. Only
high bright eyes comforted me and told me that my work was a good work."

David and Jacob interchanged nods of wonder, for Ephraim was telling to
this woman the dearest secret of his life.

It was how he had saved the weakling colt, Jumis, and raised him to a
beautiful, strong stallion, only to have him die suddenly in the height
of his promise. Certainly Ephraim was nearly won over by the woman; it
threw David on guard.

"Go back to Abra," he whispered. "Ride on to the gate and tell her
boldly to be gone. I shall wait here, and in time of need I shall help
you. Make haste. Ephraim grows like wet clay under her fingers. Ah, how
wise is Benjamin!"

Jacob obeyed. He stole away and presently shot past at the full gallop
of Abra. The stallion came to a sliding halt, and Jacob spoke from his
back, which was a grave discourtesy in the Garden of Eden.

"The master will not see you," he said. "The sun is still high. Return
by the way you have come; you get no more from the Garden than its water
and its air. He does not sell horses."

For the first time she spoke, and at the sound of her voice David Eden
stepped out from the rock; he remembered himself in time and shrank back
to shelter.

"He sold this horse."

"It was the will of the men before David that these things should be
done, but the Lord knows the mind of David and that his heart