"Benjamin!" cried the old man, his voice failing in utterance until it became almost a hiss. "Benjamin! I have no son Benjamin. He has disowned his name; I disown his blood. What does the traitor Glaucon do in the house of Elkiah? Let him be gone! I charge thee, Deborah, if thou be a true daughter, banish him from our house." "But, father----" "Nay, let him be gone!" "But, father, Benjamin is harmed; wounded; it may be he is killed." The venerable man raised himself on his arm, and stared about him. Deborah laid him gently back upon the pillows. "Oh, father, do not curse him. It may be he will not live. Do not curse him." He gazed at her, taking her face between his hands and drawing it close to his. "Aye, my Miriam again! Would God, Deborah, you had been my son!" "But, father, pity our Benjamin. He is grievously hurt." A change passed over the features of Elkiah. Suddenly the tears dimmed his sight, and he said: "Benjamin hurt? My boy? The child of Miriam harmed? Where is he? Help me, that I may go to him." He vainly tried to rise. His hands clenched as he muttered: "The Lord avenge the house of Elkiah upon the heads of the heathen! The Lord spare my child! Benjamin! Benjamin! Would God I had died for thee!" When she had seen the wounded man brought safely into the lower chamber, Deborah quickly searched every part of the house, and her cry for Caleb rang from the roof to the court. "He is not here. I will go again to the street." The strong, but kind, hand of Dion blocked the way: "Nay, good maiden, you cannot return to the city. I will go where you could not. I swear to search the streets and camps if you will but pledge me to abide here." "A pledge to a Greek!" But the look of scorn passed quickly from her face, as she saw the solicitude in his. After a little thought, in which her agitated manner told that she could keep such a promise only with her body, and that her whole soul would go with Dion in his search, she replied: "It is well. I see it is my duty to stay here, sir. But hasten! Hasten, and I will pray for you every step. The Lord bless you, good sir!" "Your own blessing were enough," said Dion, as he ran down the steps. VI A JEWISH CUPID Dion knew that a personal search for the lad among the crowds of soldiers, who were lodged in half the houses of the city, and in hundreds of tents beyond the walls, would be a long, if not a useless one, since, if any persons had captured the child, they would have reason for concealing his whereabouts. Dion went, therefore, at once to the headquarters of Apollonius, that he might obtain an order that none would dare disregard.