to be made of
iron, set with many beautiful stones, while its front was adorned with
an aigrette of crimson feathers, fastened by a brooch which also
appeared to be made of iron. A broad belt, embroidered in red, black
and gold, encircled his waist, attached to which was a great
cross-hilted sword which looked as though it might have originally
belonged to a crusader. His feet were shod with sandals of crimson
leather, and his fingers decorated with several rings, apparently of
wrought iron, each of which was set with a very fine stone, either
emerald, sapphire, ruby, or diamond.

Taken altogether, Juda was a remarkably imposing specimen of manhood,
and a worthy progenitor of his handsome granddaughter, Myrra. She,
however, unlike her grandfather, was fair as a summer's dawn, of medium
height, with violet eyes, and an extraordinary wealth of ruddy-golden
hair which, confined to her head by a fillet of what looked like red
velvet set with precious stones, rolled thence to far below her waist in
great waves. Her outer garment, sleeveless, might have been copied from
those depicted on the Greek vases in the British Museum and, like her
grandfather's, was red in colour, adorned with braiding in the same
colours as his. Her sandals were of white leather, and she wore armlets
and bracelets of beautifully worked iron encrusted with precious stones.

As the two white men, intuitively guessing the identity of those in
whose presence they found themselves, walked slowly up the room, Juda
and Myrra rose to their feet and stood gazing with the utmost interest
at their visitors. Juda's eyes were intently fixed upon the amulet
which Earle now habitually wore fully exposed to view; but after the
first glance, Myrra seemed far more interested in Dick, with his
stalwart frame and good-looking features.

Arrived within some half-a-dozen paces of the two august figures, Earle
and Dick came to a halt and bowed, while Bahrim, who had been bowing
almost to the earth during his progress up the hall, now knelt down,
touched the marble pavement three times with his forehead, and then,
rising to his feet, introduced the visitors in a long speech, which was
of course utterly unintelligible to the white men, though they gathered
from certain of Bahrim's movements and gestures that the incident of the
runaway horses, of Dick stopping them, and of Earle's attentions to
Mishail, the injured charioteer, formed part of the speech.

The two r