and fled out of the hut. Oh, fool of fools, why had he been dallying
with dreams--billing and cooing with his own fancies--fondling

and nuzzling and coddling them? Let all dreams henceforth be dead
and damned for ever; for only devils out of hell had made them

that poor men's souls might be staked and lost! Oh, why had he not
remembered the pale face of Naomi when he left her, and the silence

of her tongue that had used to laugh? Fool, fool! Why had he ever left
her at all?

With such thoughts Israel hurried along, sometimes running
at his utmostvelocity, and then stopping dead short; sometimes shouting

his imprecations at the pitch of his voice and beating his fist
against the sharp aloes until it bled, and then whispering

to himself in awe.
Would God not hear his prayer? God knew the child was very near

and dear to him, and also that he was a lonely man. "Have pity
on a lonely man, O God!" he whispered. "Let me keep my child;

take all else that I have, everything, no matter what!
Only let me keep her--yes, just as she is, let me have her still!

Time was when I asked more of Thee, but now I am humble,
and ask that alone."

On his knees in a lonesome place, with the fierce sun beating down
on his uncovered head, amid the blackened leaves left by the locust,

he prayed this prayer, and then rose to his feet and ran.
When he got to Tetuan the white city was glistening

under the setting sun. Then he thought of his Moorish jellab,
and looked at himself, and saw that he was returning home like a beggar;

and he remembered with what splendour he had started out.
Should he wait for the darkness, and creep into his house

under the cover of it? If the thought had occurred an hour before
he must have scouted it. Better to brave the looks of every face

in Tetuan than be kept back one minute from Naomi. But now that he was
so near he was afraid to go in; and now that he was so soon

to learn the truth he dreaded to hear it. So he walked to and fro
on the heath outside the town, paltering with himself,

struggling with himself, eating out his heart with eagerness,
trying to believe that he was waiting for the night.

The night came at length, and, under a deep-blue sky fast whitening
with thick stars, Israel passed unknown through the Moorish gate,

which was still open, and down the narrow lane to the market square.
At the gate of the Mellah, which was closed, he knocked,

and demanded entrance in the name of the Kaid. The Moorish guards
who kept it fell back at sight of him with looks of consternation.

"Israel!" cried one. and dropped his lantern.
Israel whispered, "Keep your tongue between your teeth!" and hurried on.

At the door of his own house, which was also closed, he knocked again,
but more fearfully. The black woman Habeebah opened it cautiously, and,

seeing his jellab, she clashed it back in his face.
"Habeebah!" he cried, and he knocked once more.

Then Ali came to the door. "What Moorish man are you?" cried Ali,
pushing him back as he pressed forward.

"Ali! Hush! It is I--Israel."
Then Ali knew him and cried, "God save us! What has happened?"

"What has happened here?" said Israel. "Naomi," he faltered,
"what of her?"

"Then you have heard?" said Ali. "Thank God, she is now well."
Israel laughed--his laugh was like a scream.

"More than that--a strange thing has befallen her since you went away,"
said Ali.

"What?"
"She can hear"

"It's a lie!" cried Israel, and he raised his hand and struck Ali
to the floor. But at the next minute he was lifting him up and sobbing

and saying, "Forgive me, my brave boy. I was mad, my son;
I did not know what I was doing. But do not torture me.

If what you tell me is true, there is no man so happy under heaven;
but if it is false, there is no fiend in hell need envy me."

And Ali answered through his tears, "It is true, my father--come and see."
CHAPTER XII

THE BAPTISM OF SOUND
WHAT had happened at Israel's house during Israel's absence is a story

that may be quickly told. On the day of his departure Naomi wandered
from room to room, seeming to seek for what she could not find,

and in the evening the black women came upon her in the upper chamber
where her father had read to her at sunset, and she was kneeling

by his chair and the book was in her hands.
"Look at her, poor child," said Fatimah. "See, she thinks he will come

as usual. God bless her sweet innocent face!"
On the day following she stole out of the house into the town and

made her way to the Kasbah, and Ali found her in the apartments
of the wife of the Basha, who had lit upon her as she seemed

to ramble aimlessly through the courtyard from the Treasury
to the Hall of Justice, and from there to the gate of the prison.

The next day after that she did not attempt to go abroad,
and neither did she wander through the house, but sat in the same seat

constantly, and seemed to be waitingpatiently. She was pale and quiet
and silent; she did not laugh according to her wont, and she had a look

of submission that was very touching to see.
"Now the holy saints have pity on the sweet jewel," said Fatimah.

"How long will she wait, poor darling?"
On the morning of the day following that her quiet had given place

to restlessness, and her pallor to a burning flush of the face.
Her hands were hot, her head was feverish, and her blind eyes

were bloodshot.
It was now plain that the girl was ill, and that Israel's fears

on setting out from home had been right after all. And making his own
reckoning with Naomi's condition, Ali went off for the only doctor

living in Tetuan--a Spanish druggist living in the walled lane leading
to the western gate. This good man came to look at Naomi,

felt her pulse, touched her throbbing forehead, with difficulty
examined her tongue, and pronounced her illness to be fever.

He gave some homely directions as to her treatment--for he despaired
of administering drugs to such a one as she was--and promised

to return the next day.
About the middle of that night Naomi became delirious.

Fatimah stood constantly by her bed, bathing her hot forehead
with vinegar and water; Habeebah slept in a chair at her feet;

and Ali crouched in a corner outside the door of her room.
The druggist came in the morning, according to his promise;

but there was nothing to be done, so he looked wise, wagged his head
very solemnly, and said, "I will come again after two days more,

when the fever must be near to its height, and bring a famous leech
out of Tangier along with me!"

Meantime, Naomi's delirium continued. It was gentle as
her own spirit tent there. was this that was strange and eerie

about her unconsciousness--that whereas she had been dumb
while her mind in its dark cell must have been mistress of itself

and of her soul, she spoke without ceasing throughout the time
of her reason's vanquishment. Not that her poor tongue in its trouble

uttered speech such as those that heard could follow and understand,
but only a restlessbabble of empty sounds, yet with tones

of varying feeling, sometimes of gladness, sometimes of sorrow,
sometimes of remonstrance, and sometimes of entreaty.

All that night, and the next night also, the two black women sat together
by her bedside, holding each other's hands like little children

in great fear. Also Ali crouched again like a dog in the darkness
outside the door, listening in terror to the silvery young voice

that had never echoed in that house before. This was the night
when Israel, sleeping at the squalid inn of the Jews of Wazzan,

was hearing Naomi's voice in his dreams.