e, lifted his oar and
stopped.

Again the voice, now half sobbing, called, "Unclean! Unclean! Oh,
Jael--I am unclean!"

The fisherman gave a start and cried, "Who art thou that doth call
'Jael' in the voice of one dead?"

"It is Sara."

"Sara is dead--by bitter hemlock did she die."

"Yea, Sara is dead. Yet not by bitter hemlock. By the living death of
an issue of blood which is worse than leprosy hath Sara been buried
from the clean, though she yet liveth."

"God of my fathers!" The words rang out on the stillness as an
accusing yell. "It is Sara speaking from a living tomb. Whence hast
thou come?"

"To the place where soldiers are quartered in the household of Herod
was I taken. Here were many other maidens. Some there were whose
tongue I knew not. But on the faces of them all was one speech
written, one fear and one prayer for death. Here were we searched to
the skin. Here was my hemlock taken. Here did Herod walk forth and
when he did see a maiden that well pleased him, to the palace she went.
But not I. By those of brutal force was I taken. And when I was no
longer fair, my strength had gone and the issue of death had come upon
me, then was I cast out. Since, have I wandered, feeding on what the
gleaners left and where the fruit grows wild and the springs cast up
their water. To-day I came to wash my garment that doth pain me by its
stiffness. Then comest thou and I am covered with shame. Once I was
clean as my love for thee, but now--oh, Jael--go back! Go back!"

"Nay, but I will take thee first across the water to the country of the
Gadarenes. The outcast of Gadara be better fed than dogs, for in the
place of caves and tombs do they congregate and bread be carried
thither more than the crumbs cast to the unclean by those making much
prayer in Israel. Go hence."

"Nay--nay! The screams of the tomb-dwellers hath come across the water
to my ears at night."

"These are maniacs chained to rocks."

"I go not. Though I be unclean, would I be free, lest when my misery
go to my head, I too be chained to a rock. Alone will I wander. Get
thee gone, my Jael--get thee gone that I may draw my garment from the
water and hide away from the light."

"Thou shalt have my garment," and he snatched his upper garment from
his body and, hastily paddling to the shore, spread it on the sand.

"The blessing of God on thee, Jael--Jael who was once mine," she
sobbed. "When the rains fall cold wil