Abstract

Contents Updated: Monday, October 11, 1999

The Fair Race

Downward along a smooth, broad floor led the strange tunnel, for such Joshua was now convinced was the nature of the shaft he at first had thought but a cave.

Before him he could hear the occasional low moans of the lion, and presently from behind came a similar uncanny note.

Another lion had entered the passageway on HIS trail! His position was anything but pleasant.

His eyes could not penetrate the darkness even to the distinguishing of his hand before his face, while the lions, he knew, could see quite well, though absence of light seemed utter.

No other sounds came to his ears than the dismal, bloodthirsty moanings of the beast ahead and the beast behind.

The tunnel had led straight, from where he had entered it beneath the side of the rock furthest from the unscaleable cliffs, toward the mighty barrier that had baffled him so long.

Now it was running almost level, and presently he noted a gradual ascent.

The beast behind him was gaining upon him, crowding him perilously close upon the heels of the beast in front.

Presently he should have to do battle with one, or both.

More firmly he gripped his weapon.

Now he could hear the breathing of the lion at his heels.

Not for much longer could he delay the encounter.

Long since he had become assured that the tunnel led beneath the cliffs to the opposite side of the barrier, and he had hoped that he might reach the moonlit open before being compelled to grapple with either of the monsters.

The sun had been setting as he entered the tunnel, and the way had been sufficiently long to assure him that darkness now reigned upon the world without.

He glanced behind him.

Blazing out of the darkness, seemingly not ten paces behind, glared two flaming points of fire.

As the savage eyes met his, the beast emitted a frightful roar and then he charged.

To face that savage mountain of onrushing ferocity, to stand unshaken before the hideous fangs that he knew were bared in slavering blood-thirstiness, though he could not see them, required nerves of bronze; but of such were the nerves of Joshua of Salem.

He had the brute’s eyes to guide his point, and, as true as the sword hand of his mighty sire, his guided the keen point to one of those blazing orbs, even as he leaped lightly to one side.

With a hideous scream of pain and rage, the wounded lion hurtled, clawing, past him.

Then it turned to charge once more; but this time Joshua saw but a single gleaming point of fiery hate directed upon him.

Again the needle point met its flashing target.

Again the horrid cry of the stricken beast reverberated through the rocky tunnel, shocking in its torture-laden shrillness, deafening in its terrific volume.

But now, as it turned to charge again, the man had no guide whereby to direct his point.

He heard the scraping of the padded feet upon the rocky floor.

He knew the thing was charging down upon him once again, but he could see nothing.

Yet, if he could not see his antagonist, neither could his antagonist now see him.

Leaping, as he thought, to the exact centre of the tunnel, he held his sword point ready on a line with the beast’s chest.

It was all that he could do, hoping that chance might send the point into the savage heart as he went down beneath the great body.

So quickly was the thing over that Joshua could scarce believe his senses as the mighty body rushed madly past him.

Either he had not placed himself in the centre of the tunnel, or else the blinded lion had erred in its calculations.

However, the huge body missed him by a foot, and the creature continued on down the tunnel as though in pursuit of the prey that had eluded him.

Joshua, too, followed the same direction, nor was it long before his heart was gladdened by the sight of the moonlit exit from the long, dark passage.

Before him lay a deep hollow, entirely surrounded by gigantic cliffs.

The surface of the valley was dotted with enormous trees, a strange sight so far from a waterway.

The ground itself was clothed in short grass, picked out with innumerable patches of pretty flowering herbs.

Beneath the silvery effulgence of the moon the scene was one of indescribable loveliness, tinged with the weirdness of strange enchantment.

For only an instant, however, did his gaze rest upon the natural beauties outspread before him.

Almost immediately they were riveted upon the figure of a huge lion standing across the carcass of a newly killed camel.

The huge beast, his tawny mane bristling around his bloodied head, kept his eyes fixed upon another lion that charged erratically hither and thither, with shrill screams of pain, and horrid roars of hate and rage.

Joshua quickly guessed that the second brute was the one he had blinded during the fight in the tunnel, but it was the dead camel that centred his interest more than either of the savage carnivores.

The bridle was still upon the head of the Arabim’s mount, and Joshua could not doubt but that this was the very animal upon which the gentile soldier had borne away Judith of Ephraim.

But where were the rider and his prisoner? The Prince of Salem shuddered as he thought upon the probability of the fate that had overtaken them.

Human flesh is the food most craved by the fierce lion of Judah, whose huge carcass and giant thews require enormous quantities of meat to sustain them.

Two human bodies would have but whetted the creature’s appetite, and that he had killed and eaten the gentile man and the Ephraim girl seemed only too likely to Joshua.

He had left the carcass of the mighty camel to be devoured after having consumed the more tooth-some portion of his banquet.

Now the sightless lion, in its savage, aimless charging and counter-charging, had passed beyond the kill of its fellow, and there the light breeze that was blowing wafted the scent of new blood to its nostrils.

No longer were its movements erratic.

With outstretched tail and foaming jaws it charged straight as an arrow, for the body of the camel and the mighty creature of destruction that stood with forepaws upon the slate-grey side, waiting to defend its meat.

When the charging lion was twenty paces from the dead camel the killer gave vent to its hideous challenge, and with a mighty spring leaped forward to meet it.

The battle that ensued awed even the Salemite.

The mad rending, the hideous and deafening roaring, the implacable savagery of the blood-stained beasts held him in the paralysis of fascination, and when it was over and the two creatures, their heads and shoulders torn to ribbons, lay with their dead jaws still buried in each other’s bodies, Joshua tore himself from the spell only by an effort of the will.

Hurrying to the side of the dead camel, he searched for traces of the girl he feared had shared the camel’s fate, but nowhere could he discover anything to confirm his fears.

With slightly lightened heart he started out to explore the valley, but scarce a dozen steps had he taken when the glistening of a jewelled bauble lying on the grass caught his eye.

As he picked it up his first glance showed him that it was a woman’s hair ornament, and emblazoned upon it was the insignia of the royal house of Ephraim.

But, sinister discovery, blood, still wet, splotched the magnificent jewels of the setting.

Joshua half choked as the dire possibilities which the thing suggested presented themselves to his imagination.

Yet he could not, would not believe it.

It was impossible that that radiant creature could have met so hideous an end.

It was incredible that the glorious Judith should ever cease to be.

Upon his already jewel-encrusted harness, to the strap that crossed his majestic chest beneath which beat his loyal heart, Joshua, Prince of Salem, fastened the gleaming thing that Judith of Ephraim had worn, and wearing, had made holy to the Salemite.

Then he proceeded upon his way into the heart of the unknown valley.

For the most part the giant trees shut off his view to any but the most limited distances.

Occasionally he caught glimpses of the towering hills that bounded the valley upon every side, and though they stood out clear beneath the light of the two moons, he knew that they were far off, and that the extent of the valley was immense.

For half the night he continued his search, until presently he was brought to a sudden halt by the distant sound of squealing camels.

Guided by the noise of these habitually bad-tempered beasts, he stole forward through the trees until at last he came upon a level, treeless plain, in the centre of which a city of Arabim reared its black woollen marquees and vividly coloured pendants.

About the walld city the Salemite saw a huge encampment of the gentile soldiers of the Wilderness of the Dead Sea, and as he let his eyes rove carefully over the city he realized that here was no deserted metropolis of a dead past.

But what city could it be? His studies had taught him that in this little-explored portion of The Land the fierce tribe of Arabim men ruled supreme, and that as yet no Salemite or Ephraimite had succeeded in piercing to the heart of their domain to return again to the world of civilization.

The men of Arabim had perfected huge catapults with which their uncanny marksmanship had permitted them to repulse the few determined efforts that nearbouring nations of Arabim had made to explore their country by means of battle fleets of chariots.

That he was within the boundary of Arabim, Joshua was sure, but that there existed there such a wondrous city he never had dreamed, nor had the chronicles of the past even hinted at such a possibility, for the Arabim were known to live, as did the other gentile men of The Land, within the deserted cities that dotted the dying quarter, nor ever had any desert horde built so much as a single edifice, other than the low stone shrines where they offer abominations to gods of fertility.

The encircling camp of gentile soldiers lay about five hundred yards from the city’s walls.

Between it and the city was no semblance of breastwork or other protection against bow or catapult fire; yet distinctly now in the light of the rising sun Joshua could see many figures moving along the top of the wall, and upon the watchtowers beyond.

That they were beings like himself he was sure, though they were at too great distance from him for him to be positive that they were Petran men.

Almost immediately after sunrise the gentile soldiers commenced firing upon the little figures upon the wall.

To Joshua’s surprise the fire was not returned, but presently the last of the city’s inhabitants had sought shelter from the weird marksmanship of the gentile men, and no further sign of life was visible beyond the wall.

Then Joshua, keeping within the shelter of the trees that fringed the plain, began circling the rear of the besiegers” line, hoping against hope that somewhere he would obtain sight of Judith of Ephraim, for even now he could not believe that she was dead.

That he was not discovered was a miracle, for mounted soldiers were constantly riding back and forth from the camp into the forest; but the long day wore on and still he continued his seemingly fruitless quest, until, near sunset, he came opposite a mighty gate in the city’s western wall.

Here seemed to be the principal force of the attacking horde.

Here a great platform had been erected whereon Joshua could see squatting a gentile soldier, surrounded by others of his kind.

This, then, must be the notorious Harith the Fourth, King of Arabim, the fierce old ogre of the south-west, as only for a King are platforms raised in temporary camps or upon the march by the gentile hordes of The Land.

As the Salemite watched he saw another gentile soldier push his way forward toward the rostrum.

Beside him he dragged a captive, and as the surrounding soldiers parted to let the two pass, Joshua caught a fleeting glimpse of the prisoner.

His heart leaped in rejoicing.

Judith of Ephraim still lived! It was with difficulty that Joshua restrained the impulse to rush forward to the side of the Ephraimian princess; but in the end his better judgment prevailed, for in the face of such odds he knew that he should have been but throwing away, uselessly, any future opportunity he might have to succour her.

He saw her dragged to the foot of the rostrum.

He saw Harith the Fourth address her.

He could not hear the creature’s words, nor Judith’s reply; but it must have angered the gentile monster, for Joshua saw him leap toward the prisoner, striking her a cruel blow across the face with his metal-banded arm.

Then the son of David Overgath, King of Kings, Lord of The Land, went mad.

The old, blood-red haze through which his sire had glared at countless foes, floated before his eyes.

His Nazirite muscles, responding quickly to his will, sent him in leaping and bounding toward the gentile monster that had struck the woman he loved.

The Arabim were not looking in the direction of the forest.

All eyes had been upon the figures of the girl and their King, and loud was the hideous laughter that rang out in appreciation of the wit of the gentile king’s reply to his prisoner’s appeal for liberty.

Joshua had covered about half the distance between the forest and the gentile soldiers, when a new factor succeeded in still further directing the attention of the latter from him.

Upon a high tower within the beleaguered city a man appeared.

From his upturned mouth there issued a series of frightful shrieks; uncanny shrieks that swept, shrill and terrifying, across the city’s walls, over the heads of the besiegers, and out across the forest to the uttermost confines of the valley.

Once, twice, thrice the fearsome sound smote upon the ears of the listening gentile men and then far, far off across the broad woods came sharp and clear from the distance an answering shriek.

It was but the first.

From every point rose similar savage cries, until the world seemed to tremble to their reverberations.

The gentile soldiers looked nervously this way and that.

They knew not fear, as civilised men may know it; but in the face of the unusual their wonted self-assurance deserted them.

And then the majestic gate in the city wall opposite the platform of Harith the Fourth swung suddenly wide.

From it issued as strange a sight as Joshua ever had witnessed, though at the moment he had time to cast but a single fleeting glance at the tall bowmen emerging through the portal behind their long, oval shields; to note their flowing auburn hair; and to realize that the growling things at their side were fierce lions of The Land.

Then he was in the midst of the astonished Arabim.

With drawn sikar he was among them, and to Judith of Ephraim, whose startled eyes were the first to fall upon him, it seemed that she was looking upon David Overgath himself, so strangely similar to the fighting of the father was that of the son.

Even to the famous fighting smile of the shepherd was the resemblance true.

And the sword arm! Ah, the subtleness of it, and the speed! All about was turmoil and confusion.

Gentile soldiers were leaping to the backs of their restive, squealing camels.

Dogs were growling out their savage gutturals, whining to be at the throats of the oncoming foemen.

Ibn Harith and another by the side of the rostrum had been the first to note the coming of Joshua, and it was with them he battled for possession of the Ephraim girl, while the others hastened to meet the host advancing from the beleaguered city.

Joshua sought both to defend Judith of Ephraim and reach the side of the hideous Harith the Fourth that he might avenge the blow the creature had struck the girl.

He succeeded in reaching the rostrum, over the dead bodies of two soldiers who had turned to join Ibn Harith and his companion in repulsing this adventurous Salemite man, just as Harith the Fourth was about to leap from it to the back of his camel.

The attention of the gentile soldiers turned principally upon the bowmen advancing upon them from the city, and upon the savage lions that paced beside them— cruel beasts of war, infinitely more terrible than their own savage dogs.

As Joshua leaped to the rostrum he drew Judith up beside him, and then he turned upon the departing King with an angry challenge and a sword thrust.

As the Salemite’s point pricked his gentile hide, Harith the Fourth turned upon his adversary with a snarl, but at the same instant two of his chieftains called to him to hasten, for the charge of the fair-skinned inhabitants of the city was developing into a more serious matter than the Arabim had anticipated.

Instead of remaining to battle with the Petran man, Harith the Fourth promised him his attention after he had disposed of the presumptuous citizens of the walled city, and, leaping astride his camel, galloped off to meet the rapidly advancing bowmen.

The other soldiers quickly followed their King, leaving Judith and Joshua alone upon the platform.

Between them and the city raged a terrific battle.

The fair-skinned soldiers, armed only with their long bows and a kind of short-handled war-axe, were almost helpless beneath the savage mounted gentile men at close quarters; but at a distance their sharp arrows did fully as much execution as the projectiles of the gentile men.

But if the soldiers themselves were outclassed, not so their savage companions, the fierce lions.

Scarce had the two lines come together when hundreds of these appalling creatures had leaped among the Arabim, dragging soldiers from their camels—dragging down the huge camels themselves, and bringing consternation to all before them.

The numbers of the citizenry, too, was to their advantage, for it seemed that scarce a soldier fell but his place was taken by a score more, in such a constant stream did they pour from the city’s majestic gate.

And so it came, what with the ferocity of the lions and the numbers of the bowmen, that at last the Arabim fell back, until presently the platform upon which stood Joshua and Judith lay directly in the centre of the fight.

That neither was struck by a dart or an arrow seemed a miracle to both; but at last the tide had rolled completely past them, so that they were alone between the fighters and the city, except for the dying and the dead, and a score or so of growling lions, less well trained than their fellows, who prowled among the corpses seeking meat.

To Joshua the strangest part of the battle had been the terrific toll taken by the bowmen with their relatively puny weapons.

Nowhere that he could see was there a single wounded gentile man, but the corpses of their dead lay thick upon the field of battle.

Death seemed to follow instantly the slightest pinprick of a bowman’s arrow, nor apparently did one ever miss its goal.

There could be but one explanation: the missiles were poison-tipped.

Presently the sounds of conflict died in the distant forest.

Quiet reigned, broken only by the growling of the devouring lions.

Joshua turned toward Judith of Ephraim.

As yet neither had spoken.

“Where are we, Judith?” he asked.

The girl looked at him questioningly.

His very presence had seemed to proclaim a guilty knowledge of her abduction.

How else might he have known the destination of the chariot that brought her! “Who should know better than the Prince of Salem?” she asked in return.

“Did he not come hither of his own free will?” “From Gomorrha I came voluntarily upon the trail of the gentile man who had stolen you, Judith,” he replied; “but from the time I left Salem until I awoke above Gomorrha I thought myself bound for Ephraim.

“It had been intimated that I had guilty knowledge of your abduction,” he explained simply, “and I was hastening to the King, your father, to convince him of the falsity of the charge, and to give my service to your recovery.

Before I left Salem some one tampered with my sextant, so that it bore me to Gomorrha instead of to Ephraim.

That is all.

You believe me?” “But the soldiers who stole me from the garden!” she exclaimed.

“After we arrived at Gomorrha they wore the livery of the Prince of Salem.

When they took me they were trapped in Roman harness.

There seemed but a single explanation.

Whoever dared the outrage wished to put the onus upon another, should he be detected in the act; but once safely away from Ephraim he felt safe in having his minions return to their own livery.” “You believe that I did this thing, Judith?” he asked.

“O, Joshua,” she replied sadly, “I did not wish to believe it; but when everything pointed to you—even then I would not believe it”.

“I did not do it, Judith,” he said.

“But let me be entirely honest with you. As much as I love your father, as much as I respect Joseph Caiaphas, to whom you are betrothed, as well as I know the frightful consequences that must have followed such an act of mine, hurling into war, as it would, three of the greatest nations of The Land—yet, notwithstanding all this, I should not have hesitated to take you thus, Judith of Ephraim, had you even hinted that it would not have displeased YOU.

“But you did nothing of the kind, and so I am here, not in my own service, but in yours, and in the service of the man to whom you are promised, to save you for him, if it lies within the power of man to do so,” he concluded, almost bitterly.

Judith of Ephraim looked into his face for several moments.

Her breast was rising and falling as though to some resistless emotion.

She half took a step toward him.

Her lips parted as though to speak—swiftly and impetuously.

And then she conquered whatever had moved her.

“The future acts of the Prince of Salem,” she said coldly, “must constitute the proof of his past honesty of purpose.” Joshua was hurt by the girl’s tone, as much as by the doubt as to his integrity which her words implied.

He had half hoped that she might hint that his love would be acceptable—certainly there was due him at least a little gratitude for his recent acts in her behalf; but the best he received was cold scepticism.

The Prince of Salem shrugged his broad shoulders.

The girl noted it, and the little smile that touched his lips, so that it became her turn to be hurt.

Of course she had not meant to hurt him.

He might have known that after what he had said she could not do anything to encourage him! But he need not have made his indifference quite so palpable.

The men of Salem were noted for their gallantry—not for boorishness.

Possibly it was the Earth blood that flowed in his veins.

How could she know that the shrug was but Joshua’s way of attempting, by physical effort, to cast blighting sorrow from his heart, or that the smile upon his lips was the fighting smile of his father with which the son gave outward evidence of the determination he had reached to submerge his own great love in his efforts to save Judith of Ephraim for another, because he believed that she loved this other! He reverted to his original question.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“I do not know.” “Nor I,” replied the girl.

“Those who stole me from Ephraim spoke among themselves of Gomorrha, so that I thought it possible that the ancient city to which they took me was that famous ruin; but where we may be now I have no idea.” “When the bowmen return we shall doubtless learn all that there is to know,” said Joshua.

“Let us hope that they prove friendly.

What race may they be? Only in the most ancient of our legends and in the mural paintings of the deserted cities of the Wilderness of the Dead Sea are depicted such a race of auburn-haired, fair-skinned people.

Can it be that we have stumbled upon a surviving city of the past which all The Land believes buried beneath the ages?” Judith was looking toward the forest into which the gentile men and the pursuing bowmen had disappeared.

From a great distance came the hideous cries of lions, and an occasional shot.

“It is strange that they do not return,” said the girl.

“One would expect to see the wounded limping or being carried back to the city,” replied Joshua, with a puzzled frown.

“But how about the wounded nearer the city? Have they carried them within?” Both turned their eyes toward the field between them and the walled city, where the fighting had been most furious.

There were the lions, still growling about their hideous feast.

Joshua looked at Judith in astonishment.

Then he pointed toward the field.

“Where are they?” he whispered.

“WHAT HAS BECOME OF THEIR DEAD AND WOUNDED?”

The King of Peraea

The girl looked on with incredulity.

“They lay in piles,” she murmured.

“There were thousands of them but a minute ago.” “And now,” continued Joshua, “there remain but the lions and the carcasses of the gentile men.” “They must have sent forth and carried the dead bowmen away while we were talking,” said the girl.

“It is impossible!” replied Joshua.

“Thousands of dead lay there upon the field but a moment since.

It would have required many hours to have removed them.

The thing is uncanny.” “I had hoped,” said Judith, “that we might find an asylum with these fair-skinned people.

Notwithstanding their valour upon the field of battle, they did not strike me as a ferocious or warlike people.

I had been about to suggest that we seek entrance to the city, but now I scarce know if I care to venture among people whose dead vanish into thin air.” “Let us chance it,” replied Joshua.

“We can be no worse off within their walls than without.

Here we may fall prey to the lions or the no less fierce Arabim.

There, at least, we shall find beings moulded after our own images.

“All that causes me to hesitate,” he added, “is the danger of taking you past so many lions.

A single sword would scarce prevail were even a couple of them to charge simultaneously.” “Do not fear on that score,” replied the girl, smiling.

“The lions will not harm us.” As she spoke she descended from the platform, and with Joshua at her side stepped fearlessly out upon the bloody field in the direction of the walled city of mystery.

They had advanced but a short distance when a lion, looking up from its gory feast, descried them.

With an angry roar the beast walked quickly in their direction, and at the sound of its voice a score of others followed its example.

Joshua drew his sikar.

The girl stole a quick glance at his face.

She saw the smile upon his lips, and it was as wine to sick nerves; for even upon warlike The Land where all men are brave, woman reacts quickly to quiet indifference to danger—to dare-deviltry that is without bombast.

“You may return your sword,” she said.

“I told you that the lions would not harm us.

Look!” and as she spoke she stepped quickly toward the nearest animal.

Joshua would have leaped after her to protect her, but with a gesture she motioned him back.

He heard her calling to the lions in a low, singsong voice that was half purr.

Instantly the mighty heads went up and all the wicked eyes were riveted upon the figure of the girl.

Then, stealthily, they commenced moving toward her.

She had stopped now and was standing waiting them.

One, closer to her than the others, hesitated.

She spoke to him imperiously, as a master might speak to a refractory hound.

The mighty carnivore let its head droop, and with tail between its legs came slinking to the girl’s feet, and after it came the others until she was entirely surrounded by the savage maneaters.

Turning she led them to where Joshua stood.

They growled a little as they neared the man, but a few sharp words of command put them in their places.

“How do you do it?” exclaimed Joshua.

“Your father once asked me that same question in the galleries of the Golden Cliffs within the Taurus Mountains, beneath the temples of the heathens.

I could not answer him, nor can I answer you.

I do not know whence comes my power over them, but ever since the day that Belshazzar threw me among them in the lion pit of the Heathens of Tammuz, and the great creatures fawned upon instead of devouring me, I ever have had the same strange power over them.

They come at my call and do my bidding, even as the faithful dog does the bidding of your mighty sire.” With a word the girl dispersed the fierce pack.

Roaring, they returned to their interrupted feast, while Joshua and Judith passed among them toward the walled city.

As they advanced the man of Salem looked with wonder upon the dead bodies of those of the gentile men that had not been devoured or mauled by the lions.

He called the girl’s attention to them.

No arrows protruded from their carcasses.

Nowhere upon any of them was the sign of mortal wound, nor even slightest scratch or abrasion.

Before the bowmen’s dead had disappeared the corpses of the Arabim had bristled with the deadly arrows of their foes.

Where had the slender messengers of death departed? What unseen hand had plucked them from the bodies of the slain? Despite himself Joshua could scarce repress a shudder of apprehension as he glanced toward the silent city before them.

No longer was sign of life visible upon wall or roof top.

All was quiet—brooding, ominous quiet.

Yet he was sure that eyes watched them from somewhere behind that blank wall.

He glanced at Judith.

She was advancing with wide eyes fixed upon the city gate.

He looked in the direction of her gaze, but saw nothing.

His gaze upon her seemed to arouse her as from a lethargy.

She glanced up at him, a quick, brave smile touching her lips, and then, as though the act was involuntary, she came close to his side and placed one of her hands in his.

He guessed that something within her that was beyond her conscious control was appealing to him for protection.

He threw an arm about her, and thus they crossed the field.

She did not draw away from him.

It is doubtful that she realized that his arm was there, so engrossed was she in the mystery of the strange city before them.

They stopped before the gate.

It was a mighty thing.

From its construction Joshua could but dimly speculate upon its unthinkable antiquity.

It was circular, closing a circular aperture, and the Salemite knew from his study of ancient architecture of The Land that it rolled to one side, like a huge wheel, into an aperture in the wall.

Even such world-old cities as ancient Gomorrha were as yet undreamed of when the races lived that built such gates as these.

As he stood speculating upon the identity of this forgotten city, a voice spoke to them from above.

Both looked up.

There, leaning over the edge of the high wall, was a man.

His hair was auburn, his skin fair.

His forehead was high, his eyes large and intelligent.

The language that he used was intelligible to the two below, yet there was a marked difference between it and their tongue of The Land.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“And what do you here before the gate of Peraea?”

“We are friends,” replied Joshua.

“This be the princess, Judith of Ephraim, who was captured by the Arabim horde.

I am Joshua of Salem, Prince of the house of Joseph Ramath, King of Salem, and son of David Overgath, Lord of The Land, and of his wife, Sarah of Abraham”.

“Ephraim?” repeated the man.

“Salem?” He shook his head.

“I never have heard of these places, nor did I know that there dwelt upon The Land a race of thy strange appearance.

Where may these cities lie, of which you speak? From our loftiest tower we have never seen another city than Peraea.” Joshua pointed toward the north-east.

“In that direction lie Salem and Ephraim,” he said.

“Salem is over eight thousand cubits from Peraea, while Ephraim lies nine thousand five hundred cubits north-east of Salem”.

Still the man shook his head.

“I know of nothing beyond the Peraean hills,” he said.

“Nothing may live there beside the hideous gentile hordes of Arabim.

They have conquered all The Land except this single valley and the city of Peraea.

Here we have defied them for countless ages, though periodically they renew their attempts to destroy us.

From whence you come I cannot guess unless you be descended from the slaves the Arabim captured in early times when they reduced the outer world to their vassalage; but we had heard that they destroyed all other races but their own”.

Joshua tried to explain that the Arabim ruled but a relatively tiny part of The Land, and even this only because their domain held nothing to attract the Hebrew race; but the Peraean could not seem to conceive of anything beyond the valley of Peraea other than a trackless waste peopled by the ferocious gentile hordes of Arabim.

After considerably parleying he consented to admit them to the city, and a moment later the wheel-like gate rolled back within its niche, and Judith and Joshua entered the city of Peraea.

All about them were evidences of fabulous wealth.

The facades of the buildings fronting upon the avenue within the wall were richly carven, and about the windows and doors were ofttimes set foot-wide borders of precious stones, intricate mosaics, or tablets of beaten gold bearing bas-reliefs depicting what may have been bits of the history of this forgotten people.

He with whom they had conversed across the wall was in the avenue to receive them.

About him were a hundred or more men of the same race.

All were clothed in flowing robes of gold and white and all were beardless.

Their attitude was more of naive curiosity than antagonism.

They followed the new-comers with their eyes; but spoke no word to them.

Joshua could not but notice the fact that though the city had been but a short time before surrounded by a horde of bloodthirsty demons yet none of the citizens appeared to be armed, nor was there sign of soldiery about.

He wondered if all the fighting men had sallied forth in one supreme effort to rout the foe, leaving the city all unguarded.

He asked their host.

The man smiled.

“No creature other than a score or so of our sacred lions has left Peraea to-day,” he replied.

“But the soldiers—the bowmen!” exclaimed Joshua.

“We saw thousands emerge from this very gate, overwhelming the hordes of Arabim and putting them to rout with their deadly arrows and their fierce lions.” Still the man smiled his knowing smile.

“Look!” he cried, and pointed down a broad avenue before him.

Joshua and Judith followed the direction indicated, and there, marching bravely in the sunlight, they saw advancing toward them a huge army of bowmen.

“O!” exclaimed Judith.

“They have returned through another gate, or perchance these be the troops that remained to defend the city?” Again the fellow smiled his uncanny smile.

“There are no soldiers in Peraea,” he said.

“Look!” Both Joshua and Judith had turned toward him while he spoke, and now as they turned back again toward the advancing regiments their eyes went wide in astonishment, for the broad avenue before them was as deserted as the tomb.

“And those who marched out upon the hordes to-day?” whispered Joshua.

“They, too, were unreal?” The man nodded.

“But their arrows slew the gentile soldiers,” insisted Judith.

“Let us go before Herod Antipas,” replied the Peraean.

“He will tell you that which he deems it best you know.

I might tell you too much.” “Who is Herod Antipas?” asked Joshua.

“King of Peraea,” replied the guide, leading them up the broad avenue down which they had but a moment since seen the phantom army marching.

For half an hour they walked along lovely avenues between the most magnificent buildings that the two had ever seen.

Few people were in evidence.

Joshua could not but note the deserted appearance of the mighty city.

At last they came to the royal palace.

Joshua saw it from a distance, and guessing the nature of the magnificent edifice wondered that even here there should be so little sign of activity and life.

Not even a single guard was visible before the majestic entrance gate, nor in the gardens beyond, into which he could see, was there sign of the myriad life that pulses within the precincts of the royal estates of the Petran kings.

“Here,” said their guide, “is the palace of Herod Antipas.” As he spoke Joshua again let his gaze rest upon the wondrous palace.

With a startled exclamation he rubbed his eyes and looked again.

No! He could not be mistaken.

Before the massive gate stood a score of sentries.

Within, the avenue leading to the main building was lined on either side by ranks of bowmen.

The gardens were dotted with officers and soldiers moving quickly to and fro, as though bent upon the duties of the minute.

What manner of people were these who could conjure an army out of thin air? He glanced toward Judith.

She, too, evidently had witnessed the transformation.

With a little shudder she pressed more closely toward him.

“What do you make of it?” she whispered.

“It is most uncanny.” “I cannot account for it,” replied Joshua, “unless we have gone mad.” Joshua turned quickly toward the Peraean.

The fellow was smiling broadly.

“I thought that you just said that there were no soldiers in Peraea,” said the Salemite, with a gesture toward the guardsmen.

“What are these?” “Ask Herod Antipas,” replied the other.

“We shall soon be before him.” Nor was it long before they entered a lofty chamber at one end of which a man reclined upon a rich couch that stood upon a high dais.

As the trio approached, the man turned dreamy eyes sleepily upon them.

Twenty feet from the dais their conductor halted, and, whispering to Judith and Joshua to follow his example, threw himself headlong to the floor.

Then rising to hands and knees, he commenced crawling toward the foot of the throne, swinging his head to and fro and wiggling his body as you have seen a hound do when approaching its master.

Judith glanced quickly toward Joshua.

He was standing erect, with high-held head and arms folded across his broad chest.

A haughty smile curved his lips.

The man upon the dais was eyeing him intently, and Joshua of Salem was looking straight in the other’s face.

“Who be these, Judas?” asked the man of him who crawled upon his belly along the floor.

“O Herod Antipas, most glorious King,” replied Judas, “these be strangers who came with the hordes of Arabim to our gates, saying that they were prisoners of the gentile men.

They tell strange tales of cities far beyond Peraea”.

“Arise, Judas,” commanded Herod Antipas, “and ask these two why they show not to Herod Antipas the respect that is his due.” Judas arose and faced the strangers.

At sight of their erect positions his face went livid.

He leaped toward them.

“Creatures!” he screamed.

“Down! Down upon your bellies before the last of the kings of The Land!”.