"Met you not my daughter? You sent for her? No? I understand it not. One came bringing as a token a bit of the lad's clothing, and pledged to take her where the lost might be found. I thought the messenger had come from you. Ere I could detain her, Deborah was gone. Was it not you that sent? May I believe a Greek? Trifle not, I beseech you, with one whose life-thread can endure but little more. My daughter! O give me my daughter! If harm has come to her through thee, the curse of the Lord rot thy bones! O my child! My child!" "It is the trick of the soldiers. They thought to get Deborah too," cried Caleb. "Alas," said Dion, "that you were not blind, and could see to take me to the place where they kept you before the General sent for you." "That I can do," said the boy. "I saw all the way." "Saw?" "Aye, with my feet and with my nostrils and with my ears, I saw everything. Outside the walls we went down, down, down; it must have been to cross the Kedron. Then we went up, up, up, fully halfway the ascent toward Bethany. We went close to a cactus hedge, for I felt on my cheeks the cool air the cactus breathes. Then over a broken wall, for I fell among the stones. Next a house, high and of smooth mortar walls, for I can tell such things by the echo one's footfall makes. The tent we stopped at was near where horses, as many as threescore, were tethered; this I knew from their neighing. It is an old camp, for the odor of the dung was old." "I have the spot," said Dion. "It is the camp of Cleanthes. Let me away! But Glaucon, your Benjamin, does well?" bending a moment over the sleeping form. "So said the surgeon you brought," replied Elkiah. "But haste! O God of Abraham, take my son if Thou wilt, but spare, oh, spare, my Deborah! God be merciful! Thy billows are gone over me. Spare me that I may see again the face of my child, and gather strength before I go hence, and be no more!" Caleb's judgment that Deborah had been decoyed by the soldiers proved true. Her guide led her to the palace of Apollonius. On the way she passed the roysterers returning from the banquet. The presence of the soldier did not shield her from the insult of their tongues so well as did her preoccupation with anxiety for her brother. She was left alone in the antechamber of the Governor. Now and then she inquired in vain of the passing servants for the blind child. Growing suspicious, she endeavored to make her escape, but found the exits fastened, as she tried them one by one. At length the Governor came to her. He was flushed and unsteady from the effects of his debauch, and accosted her with maudlin insolence. "Ah, my pretty Jewess!" "I came, sir, to claim the blind child, son of Elkiah." "But suppose I should first claim the daughter of Elkiah. On the street I let you go, but since you have come to me, well--that is different. My will must rule in my own palace."