her waning authority.
'Think well Abraham, the son of Abraham,' she said to the man walking at her side, 'of the wrath of Jehovah when he sees that you have disobeyed him.'
'I walk in the path of the prophets,' replied the old man. 'Always we have punished those who defied the laws of Jehovah, and Jehovah has rewarded us. Why should he be wroth now? The girl must pay the price of her iniquity.'
'But she only smiled,' argued Lady Barbara.
'A sin in the eyes of Jehovah,' replied Abraham, the son of Abraham. 'Laughter is carnal, and smiles lead to laughter, which gives pleasure; and all pleasures are the lures of the devil. They are wicked.'
'Do not say any more,' said Jezebel, in English. 'You will only anger him, and when he is angry he is terrible.'
'What sayest thou, woman?' demanded Abraham, the son of Abraham.
'I was praying to Jehovah in the language of Heaven,' replied the girl.
The Prophet let his scowling gaze rest upon her. 'Thou doest well to pray, woman. Jehovah looks not with pleasure upon thee.'
'Then I shall continue praying,' replied the girl meekly, and to Lady Barbara, in English; 'The old devil is already planning my punishment. He has always hated me, just as they always hate us poor creatures who are not created in the same image as they.'
The remarkable difference in physical appearance and mentality that set Jezebel apart from the other Midians was an inexplicable phenomenon that had' constantly puzzled Lady Barbara and would continue to puzzle her, since she could not know of the little fair haired slave girl whose virile personality still sought to express itself beyond a grave nineteen centuries old. How greatly Jezebel's mentality surpassed that of her imbecilic fellows had been demonstrated to Lady Barbara by the surprising facility with which the girl had learned to speak English while she was teaching Lady Barbara the language of the Midians. How often and how sincerely had she thanked a kindly Providence for Jezebel!
The procession had now arrived at the shore of the lake, which legend asserted to be bottomless, and had halted where a few flat lava rocks of great size overhung the waters. The apostles took their places with Abraham, the son of Abraham, upon one of the rocks, the girl in their midst; and then a half dozen younger men came forward at a signal from Jobab. One of their number carried a fibre net, and two others brought a heavy piece of lava. Quickly they threw the net over the now terrified and screaming girl and secured the lava rock to it.
Abraham, the son of Abraham, raised his hands above his head, and at the signal all knelt. He commenced to pray in that now familiar gibberish that was not Midian, nor, according to Jezebel, any language whatsoever, for she insisted that the Prophet and the Apostles, to whose sole use it was restricted, could not understand it themselves. The girl, kneeling, was weeping softly now, sometimes choking down a muffled sob, while the young men held the net securely.
Suddenly Abraham, the son of Abraham, abandoned the ecclesiastical tongue and spoke in the language of his people. 'For as she has sinned so shall she suffer,' he cried. 'It is the will of Jehovah, in his infinite mercy, that she shall not be consumed by fire, but that she shall be immersed three times in the waters of Chinnereth that her sins may be washed from her. Let us pray that they may be not too grievous, since otherwise she shall not survive.' He nodded to the six young men, who seemed well schooled in their parts.
Four of them seized the net and raised it between them, while the remaining two held the ends of long fibre ropes that were attached to it. As the four commenced to swing the body of the girl pendulum like between them, her screams and pleas for mercy rose above the silent waters of Chinnereth in a diapason of horror, mingled with which were the shrieks and groans of those who, excited beyond the capacity of their nervous systems, were falling to the ground in the throes of epileptic seizures.
To and fro, with increasing rapidity, the young men swung their terror crazed burden. Suddenly one of them collapsed to sink, writhing and foaming, to the surface of the great block of lava upon which they stood, dropping the soft body of the girl heavily to the hard rocks. As Jobab signaled to another young man to take the place of him who had fallen, an apostle screamed and dropped in his tracks.
But no one gave heed to those who had succumbed, and a moment later the girl was swinging to and fro out over the waters of Chinnereth, back over the hard face of the lava.
'In the name of Jehovah! In the name of Jehovah!' chanted Abraham, the son of Abraham, to the cadence of the swinging sack. 'In the name of Jehovah! In the name of his son—' there was a pause, and as the body of the girl swung again out over the water—'Paul!'
It was the signal. The four young men released their holds upon the net, and the body of the girl shot downward toward the dark waters of the lake. There was a splash. The screaming ceased. The waters closed in above the victim of cruel fanaticism, leaving only a widening circle of retreating wavelets and two fibre ropes extending upward to the altar of castigation.
For a few seconds there was silence and immobility, except for the groans and contortions of the now greatly increased numbers of the victims of the Nemesis of the Midians. Then Abraham, the son of Abraham, spoke again to the six executioners, who immediately laid hold of the two ropes and hauled the girl upward until she swung, dripping and choking, just above the surface of the water.
For a brief interval they held her there; and then, at a word from the Prophet, they dropped her again beneath the waters.
'You murderer!' cried Lady Barbara, no longer able to control her anger. 'Order that poor creature drawn ashore before she is drowned.'
Abraham, the son of Abraham, turned eyes upon the English girl that almost froze her with horror—the wild, staring eyes of a maniac; piercing pupils rimmed round with white. 'Silence, blasphemer!' screamed the man. 'Last night I walked with Jehovah, and He told me that you would be next.'
'Oh, please,' whispered Jezebel, tugging at Lady Barbara's sleeve. 'Do not anger him more or you are lost.'
The Prophet turned again to the six young men, and again, at his command, the victim was drawn above the surface of the lake. Fascinated by the horror of the situation, Lady Barbara had stepped to the edge of the rock, and, looking down, saw the poor creature limp but still gasping in an effort to regain her breath. She was not dead, but an other immersion must surely prove fatal.
'Oh, please,' she begged, turning to the Prophet, 'in the name of merciful God, do not let them lower her again!'
Without a word of reply Abraham, the son of Abraham, gave the signal; and for the third time the now unconscious girl was dropped into the lake. The English girl sank to her knees in an attitude of prayer, and raising her eyes to heaven plead fervently to her Maker to move the heart of Abraham, the son of Abraham, to compassion, or out of the fulness of His own love to save the victim of these misguided creatures from what seemed now certain death. For a full minute she had prayed, and still the girl was left beneath the waters. Then the Prophet commanded that she be raised.
'If she is now pure in the eyes of Jehovah,' he cried, 'she will emerge alive. If she be dead, it is the will of Jehovah. I have but walked in the paths of the Prophets.'
The six young men raised the sagging net to the surface of the rocks where they rolled the limp form of the girl from it close to where Lady Barbara kneeled in prayer. And now the Prophet appeared to notice the attitude and the pleading voice of the English girl for the first time.
'What doest thou?' he demanded.
'I pray to a God whose power and mercy are beyond your understanding,' she replied. 'I pray for the life of this poor child.'
'There is the answer to your prayer,' sneered the Prophet contemptuously, indicating the still body of the girl. 'She is dead, and Jehovah has revealed to all who may have doubted that Abraham, the son of Abraham, is His prophet and that thou art an impostor.'
'We are lost,' whispered Jezebel.
Lady Barbara thought as much herself; but she thought quickly, for the emergency was critical. Rising, she faced the Prophet. 'Yes, she is dead,' she replied, 'but Jehovah can resurrect her.'
'He can, but He will not,' said Abraham, the son of Abraham.
'Not for you, for He is angry with him who dares to call himself His prophet and yet disobeys His commands.'
