Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including non-standard spelling and a misquotation of John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields". In the paragraph starting "Advertisements appear in the Berlin papers," "Advertisements" is a correction for "Advertisments". Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. One oe ligature has been expanded. THE CLOUD BY SARTELL PRENTICE "_Behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand_" [Publisher's mark] NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 FIFTH AVENUE Copyright 1918 By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY _All Rights Reserved_ _Printed in the United States of America_ TO MY WIFE A Cloud Like a Man's Hand Up on the crest of Carmel a man stood watching. Before him lay the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, to the North the curving Bay of Acre, while to the south the white surf was breaking on the reefs of Philistia. At the other end of the long Carmel ridge another man stood waiting. Before his eyes the great Plain of Esdraelon lay extended with the hills of Galilee to the North and the great bulk of Mt. Gilboa, faint in the summer haze, bounding the vision to the East. Seven times the Watcher had climbed to the Western crest of Carmel; six times he had returned to report that there was nothing to be seen, and seven times he had been bidden, "Go up again; look towards the sea." Now at last he knew that his vigil was ended; something had risen above the horizon that told him his watch was past. It was a very little thing; yet it sent him speeding back along the mountain's ridge until he came again to the man who was waiting. "Behold," he said, "There ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand." And the man who waited sent word to a King of Israel, saying, "Prepare thy chariot."