_ ... So that I was in the hospital and had become most seriously ill. But swifter than the gazelle, the light of my life came near the hospital. And called in at the window, "Ibrahim! my eye! my heart!" And full of joy I carried her about the camp, and presented her to all my superiors, leaving out none, from the colonel down to the sergeant. I received my dismissal, to return to Galiub and to marry. Old Abdehei was awaiting us, to bless us. God be praised!_ So sang Ibrahim, the converted Christian, the Moslem songs of his youth; for here, in El Makhna, the plain of Shechem, there were no missionaries with their cold reproof and little hymns in simple couplets. The fire died away, and they slept until dawn flooded the plain. When, on the next day, the sun was waning, though still high in the western heavens, the travellers came within view of the ancient city of Nabulûs. There was a great tumult of excitement in Spence's pulses as he saw the city, radiant in the long afternoon lights, and far away. Here, in the confines of this distant glittering town, lay the last link in the terrible secret which he was to solve. On either side the purple slopes of the mountains made a mighty frame to the terraced houses below. Ebal and Gerizim kept solemn watch and ward over the city. The sun was just sinking as they rode into the suburbs. It was a lovely, placid evening. The abundant cascades of water, which flow from great fissures in the mountain and make this Turkish town the jewel of the East, glittered in the light. Below them the broad, still reservoirs lay like plates of gold. They rode through luxuriant groves of olives, figs, and vines, wonderfully grateful and refreshing to the eye after the burnt brown herbage of the plain, towards the regular camping-ground where all travellers lay. In the cool of the evening Spence and Ibrahim rode through the teeming streets to the Governor's house. It was a city of fanatics, so the Englishman had heard, and during the great Moslem festivals the members of the various, and rather extensive, missionary establishments were in constant danger. But as the two men rode among the wild armed men who sat in the bazaars or pushed along the narrow streets they were not in any way molested. After a ceremonious introduction and the delivery of the letter from the Governor of Jerusalem, Spence made known his business over the coffee and cigarettes which were brought immediately on his arrival. The Governor was a placid, pleasant-mannered man, very ready to give his visitor any help he could.