ur among the judges, the Kadi so far
admitted the prelate's suspicions as to explain that last evening a
letter had reached him from his uncle at Djidda, Haschim the merchant,
in which mention was made of the emerald. His son happened to have
weighed that stone, without his knowledge, before he started for Egypt,
and Othman had here a note of its exact weight. The Jew Gamaliel had
been desired to attend with his balances, and could at once use them to
satisfy the bishop.

The jeweller immediately proceeded to do so, and old Horapollo, who
was an expert in such matters, went close up to him, and watched him
narrowly.

It was in feverish anxiety, and more eagerly than any other bystander,
that Paula and Orion kept their eyes fixed on the Jew's hands and lips;
after weighing it once, he did so a second time. Old Horapollo himself
weighed it a third time, with a keen eye though his hands trembled a
little; all three experiments gave the same result: this gem was heavier
by a few grains of doura than that which the merchant's son had weighed,
and yet the Jew declared that there was no purer, clearer, or finer
emerald in the world than this.

Orion breathed more freely, and the question arose among the judges as
to whether the young Arab might have failed in precision, or an exchange
had in fact been effected. This was difficult to imagine, since in that
case the accused would have given himself the loss, and the Church the
advantage.

The bishop, an honest man, now said that the patriarch's suspicions had
certainly led him too far in this instance, and after this he spoke no
more.

All through this enquiry the Vekeel had kept silence, but the defiant
gaze, assured of triumph, which he fixed on Paula and Orion alternately,
augured the worst.

When the prosecutor next accused the young man of complicity in the
much discussed escape of the nuns Orion again asserted his innocence,
pointing out that during the fatal contest between the Arabs and the
champions of the sisters, he had been with the Arab governor, as Amru
himself could testify. By an act of unparalleled despotism, he had been
deprived of his estates and his freedom on mere false suspicion, and he
put his trust in the first instance in a just sentence from his judges
and, failing that, he threw himself on the protection and satisfaction
of his sovereign lord the Khaliff.

As he spoke his eyes flashed flames at the Vekeel; but the negro still
preserved his se