The oath sounded formidable enough, but after all it really meant little to those who were called upon to take it, and they took it unhesitatingly, with the full intention of keeping it both in letter and in spirit--since an oath was an oath, whatever form its wording might assume--and, this done, Benoni and his guard were dismissed, and the two newly enrolled citizens of Izreel were left alone with the seven whom they subsequently came to know as the Elders. The stern attitude of these toward the two aliens was now considerably relaxed; they invited Phil and Dick to accompany them into another and a much smaller room, where, to the great satisfaction of the Englishmen, they found a substantial meal awaiting them, and to this the entire party forthwith sat down. The appetite of the ex-prisoners was by this time brought to a fine edge by their somewhat protracted fast, and they did full justice to the fare placed before them, to the wonder and admiration of their hosts, who, it appeared, were themselves but indifferent trenchermen. The meal over, and the attendants dismissed, Malachi, the chief of the Elders, and the man who had delivered judgment in the Judgment Hall, turned to Grosvenor and said: "And now, O Philip! the moment has arrived when we, the Elders, must decide in what manner you and he whom you call Dick may best serve Izreel. Tell me, therefore, I pray you, what ye can both best do, in order that we may assign to each of you a useful vocation." "That is all very well," remarked Grosvenor rather ruefully, when he had translated this speech to Dick. "So far as you are concerned the matter is simple enough; you are a doctor, and when once these chappies have had an example of your skill in that line I expect they'll find you plenty to do. But what can I do? Absolutely nothing useful! I can ride, shoot, sail a yacht passably--" "Stop!" cried Dick impulsively. "Ask these ancients whether they know what sails are. If they don't--and I'll bet they do not, or they would have used them yesterday--your vocation is cut out for you. You can teach them how to use sails, and also how to model their craft upon better lines; and by the time that you have finished that job I have no doubt another will turn up. Just talk to the old gentlemen along those lines, and see what comes of it." And Grosvenor did, with the happiest results. He ascertained that the Izreelites knew nothing whatever about sails, or indeed how to use the wind in any way as a labour-saver; and when he told his little audience that boats could be propelled, corn ground, water pumped, and a number of other useful things done by the power of wind alone, they were at first very strongly inclined to suspect him of romancing. But when he further offered to demonstrate to them the truth of his assertion they at once agreed to afford him every facility for so doing, and cheerfully promised to place at his disposal such men and material as he might require.