before her breast. "Sayest thou
these things in prophecy?" she asked finally in an eager half-whisper.
Deborah's eyes seemed to awaken. She looked at Rachel a moment and
answered with a nod. The girl's vision wandered slowly again toward
the camp, and the sorrowful unrest of Israel subdued the inspired
elation that had begun to possess her. Her face clouded once more.
Deborah touched her.

"Trouble not thyself concerning these people. They go forth to labor,
but their burdens shall be lightened ere long. As for thee and me--"
she paused and looked up toward the eminence on which the military
headquarters were built.

"As for thee and me--" Rachel urged her. Deborah motioned in the
direction she gazed. "Come, let us make ready," she said; "they are
beginning."

The Egyptian masters over Israel of Pa-Ramesu were emerging from the
quarters. They were, almost uniformly, tall, slender and immature in
figure. Dressed in the foot-soldier's tunic and coif, they looked like
long-limbed youths compared with the powerful manhood of the sons of
Abraham.

Among them, in white wool and enameled aprons, was a number of scribes,
without whom the official machinery of Egypt would have stilled in a
single revolution.

The men advanced, sauntering, talking with one another idly, as if
awaiting authority to proceed.

That came, presently, in the shape of an Egyptian charioteer. The
vehicle was heavy, short-poled, set low on two broad wheels of six
spokes, and built of hard wood, painted in wedge-shaped stripes of
green and red. The end was open, the front high and curved, the side
fitted with a boot of woven reeds for the ax and javelins of the
warrior. Axle and pole were shod with spikes of copper and the joints
were secured with tongues of bronze. The horses were bay, small,
short, glossy and long of mane and tail. The harness was simple, each
piece as broad as a man's arm, stamped and richly stained with many
colors.

The man was an ideal soldier of Egypt. He was tall and
broad-shouldered, but otherwise lean and lithe. In countenance, he was
dark,--browner than most Egyptians, but with that peculiar ruddy
swarthiness that is never the negro hue. His duskiness was accentuated
by low and intensely black brows, and deep-set, heavy-lidded eyes.
Although his features were marked by the delicacy characteristic of the
Egyptian face, there was none of the Oriental affability to be found
thereon. One might expect d