"It is the hour I have warned my lord must come. Our flocks are constantly stolen. Our herders are assaulted except as they go in bands. The tribesmen no longer keep faith with us. The Greeks--have I not often said it?--could not protect us if they would. The daughter of Elkiah has come to us as the angel to the threshing-floor of Gideon. We need no miracle of the dew on the fleece, and no fire to burst from the rock, to tell us the will of the Lord. Our God is with Judas and his brethren. The maiden's voice is His call from afar." "Bethuel was always over-ready to fight," replied Ben Aaron. "And," retorted Bethuel, "Ben Aaron has too long been, as the Arabs are everywhere saying, like a sick eagle on his nest. What is all the gold my lord has stored between these walls? My master's wealth and fame are like yonder nail that has rusted in the wall, and will scarcely hold the weight of his armor." "It is true. It is true. Bethuel, my grief has aged me. I am but a rusted nail. But the words of Bethuel and my kinswoman have touched me with youth again. Bethuel, we will fight. Do you remember, my son, how we used to fight? How we won these heights for our castle? How many years have gone? Summon my people, Bethuel. It were better to fall in war than to die here. Summon the people, Bethuel!" XXXIV QUICK LOVE: QUICK HATE! It was the fifth day since Deborah's disappearance. No tidings had come to make even a rift in the cloud on Judas' brow. Toward noon scouts, who had been sent to the Jordan to discover any possible trace of kidnapping by the tribesmen, returned with the reports that the camps, which had rapidly formed in the valley, had as suddenly broken up, the Sheikhs retiring east or north to their separate pasture lands. "The Lord be praised!" said Judas. "It can only have been by the interposition of an angel; for Yusef the Arabian, I know, had sworn to assail us, and for this and this only the tribes were gathered. Let us hope for the maiden." "How does this portend her safety?" asked Simon. "If the tribesmen have gone, may they not have taken her with them or slain her?" "True," replied Judas, "but if the Lord will that we shall be delivered from their menace, then He has not deserted our cause, as I confess my sins made me fear; and why should He spare us, and allow harm to come to the maiden?" Simon mused anxiously a moment before he answered: "Does Judas love the daughter of Elkiah? Has the sentiment of swains turned her skirts into those of an angel? Beware, my brother. Every man has his vulnerable spot. It is not timely for our Samson to be shorn of his locks." Judas' face blazed with rage. His lips were clenched as if their resolute keeper could with difficulty bar the egress of lawless words. But slowly the color faded from his countenance. He turned away, addressing only himself: "She will come yet!"