"You did not know that our dear grandfather had gone, the night before, to visit his old friends the Nazarians? And he found them so frightened, with only women there in the house, that he stayed. But in the morning, when we knew what was coming, Kevork went to seek for him, that we might die all together. Neither of them ever came back to us. Only yesterday did we hear about Kevork. One of the sheiks made his followers bring him all the strong, fine-looking young men he could find. About a hundred were brought to him. He had them held down hand and foot by his followers, while he cut their throats with his own hand, reciting all the time verses from the Koran. Kevork was among them." "And our dear Father Hohannes?" "He was at the Nazarians, as I said. He thought that perhaps the Turks, having killed the men, might be satisfied and go away. So he bade the women conceal themselves, and sat calmly at the door reading his Bible. When they saw him there, they said, 'You are an old man with white hair; we will spare you, if you will only acknowledge the Prophet. You need not speak; just lift up one finger.' 'I will not lift up one finger,' said he. Then they dragged him out into the street to kill him, and--and--Yon Effendi, I can tell you no more. Spare me!" He turned his white face away with a look of agony. "Dear boy! dear child! tell me no more if it hurts you so," Jack whispered soothingly. "However dreadful it may have been, it is over now." "It was not so _very_ dreadful," Gabriel said, after a pause. "It was soon over. But oh, Yon Effendi, there is _more_! I said _three_ were absent from us." His dark, wistful eyes, so full of pain, gazed piteously into the wondering face bent over him. A distant suspicion of who the third might mean dawned for the first time on John Grayson. "You said three were brought home to Heaven--Hohannes, Kevork, and----" "_Shushan._" In unutterable anguish John Grayson turned his face away. "_No_," he murmured hoarsely, "Shushan is not in Heaven but--_in Hell_." Gabriel half raised himself in his intense excitement. "Then you don't know----" "It is _you_ who don't know," Jack interrupted bitterly. "There is no such blessedness as death for her--or for me." "Oh, but you don't know," Gabriel said again. "Yon Effendi, listen--you _must_ listen to me. I have comfort for you." "What comfort possible for me?" "The comfort of God; our Shushan is with Him." Jack turned, and looked again in the face of Gabriel. His own was set and drawn in its anguish of suspense. His lips moved, but only one word would come--"Speak." "As they were killing my grandfather, zaptiehs passed by with Shushan guarded in their midst. She saw his white hair,--his face,--and broke through them all to throw her arms around him and plead for his life. They were taken by surprise, and did not stop her in time. No one knows how it happened, but, in the confusion, a sword meant for him went right through her heart."