his decision to go on a journey. At the threshold of his host's house he put aside his sandals and let himself in with a murmured formula. In a little time he came forth wit

between Jerusalem and Nazareth and, assured of their hospitality and the provisio

unctilious in his simplicity, and wearing unrest under his shell of calm. He had an unobstructed path, a path ceremonially clean. He had but to hesitate on the edge of a conge

On one hand was the Pr?torium, the Roman garrison encamped in the upper palace of Herod the Great; on the other, the houses of the Sadducees, the Jewish aristocrats, covered the ridge of Akra. Marsyas came upon an obstruction. At a gate opening into the street, camels knelt, servants of diverse nationality but of one livery clustered round them, several unoccupied Jewish tr

nto their chairs, the servants fell into rank, the crowd shifted and ordered itself and a procession traile

that arose to his lips and followed a

the hindmost camel was directly before Marsyas and the occupant of the howdah in his view. Over head and shoulders the full skirts of a vi

ed Hippicus, where a halt for a final farewell was made. Again Marsyas was delayed, and for a much longer time. He might have climbed out of the sunken roadway and passed around th

aristocrat. At the hindmost camel the Pharisees stopped not at all, but saluting without looking at the traveler, the priests merely raised thei

f up indignantly. The young aristocrats tarried and laughed his precious time away with a woman! That was the traveler in the last howdah! Twice and th

ing protest from the front, the young men laughed, responding, but moved away to their

them. At the intersection of the first road,

sion, sensations so new and so near to nature as to be at wide variance with anything Essenic, moved him into a mood essentially human. Then an exhalation from aft the fragrant spring-flowered groves stole into the pure air about him, bewildering, sweet, and through it,

Without the slightest discomposure, and absolutely unconscious of what he was doing, Marsyas gazed an

e walked after that through many drifts of fragrance, and many hill birds sang, but

s. But in the night, terror for Stephen, of that unknown kind which is conviction without evidence and irrefutable, s

camels, speeding like the wind, overtook him beyond Mt. Ephraim. In a vapor

h-beloved depended upon despatch. Nazareth, clinging like a wasps' nest under the eaves of its chalky hills

sacrifice for him to make, a sacrifice lifelong in effect, and in that he based his single faith in its success. Stephen loved him and

formally give over his instruction, bind himself to the perpetual life of husban

phen's love for him had failed, and h

ogue at once; there were innumerable

e meal. He saw now as he hurried by that there was a spare and elegant old man, in magistrate's robes, reclining with singular grace on a pallet of rugs bef

hat he was hungry, heated and weary, and remembering

With a light leap the man dropped from the beast's neck and bowed low. The ease of his salaam and the purity of his speech w

igned him

g thy journey. He bids me say that he is a stranger and unfamiliar with th

ecked his

him send hence into the country to the westward, half a league to th

vant protested. "We are Alexandrians and as good as lost in these hills. If th

p through the Essenic calm.

their charity," he said deftly. Marsyas turn

thirsty man does, on his pallet of rugs, but the gi

n Essene," the old man said, "and therefore

and waited restles

id-morning and I crave fresh drin

f a league, until they come unto a hill with a flat summit, which

arer?" the old

is none

esert; they are ill mountaineer

the flock's well and all the hill paths lead to it. Thi

an smiled

will not stop to gi

tfully, but turned to

and the water-s

e hills to the west. The servitors of the Alexa

reappeared before the ma

e returned. Peac

e noon. Wilt thou

said resolutely,

delay thee! I remember th

tened with another's malice. My friend is in peril. I must go unto Nazareth an

n's face and then the half-incredulo

precious minutes," he said soberl

turned again toward Nazareth. He heard a very soft, very hurried and almost imperious whisper, as he moved away,

sal. But-it hath been suggested that thy haste may permit thee to waive thy scruples and accept help from me-as it hath been sugges

e turned to the girl, shyly withdrawn under the shade of the fringed tent, and knew by the lowe

r the Essenic vow to accept hospitality from none but Essenes, though he had lived in its observance all his life; he could not reach

agistrate added, "and I pro

t by this time she had arisen and passed out of his sight, as i

nce I am not an elected Essene, but a ward of the brotherhood and a p

ceptance by a wave of a withered white hand an

his host, but the magistrate slept, even while his servants lifted him down from the howdah. As he turned away, regretfully, he confronted the veiled girl, almost childlike in stature under the protection of her tall han

with my thanks unsaid. Be thou the messenge

answered softly, "and may thy

he peace of the Lord Go