d himself that he had put trust in a Roman.
Caesar, had he heard him, might have said, 'I like not such a
friend as this; put him away.'"

"It would be but shrewd judgment," Malluch replied, smiling.
"Ilderim is not a lover of Rome; he has a grievance. Three years
ago the Parthians rode across the road from Bozra to Damascus,
and fell upon a caravan laden, among other things, with the
incoming tax-returns of a district over that way. They slew every
creature taken, which the censors in Rome could have forgiven if
the imperial treasure had been spared and forwarded. The farmers
of the taxes, being chargeable with the loss, complained to Caesar,
and Caesar held Herod to payment, and Herod, on his part, seized
property of Ilderim, whom he charged with treasonable neglect of
duty. The sheik appealed to Caesar, and Caesar has made him such
answer as might be looked for from the unwinking sphinx. The old
man's heart has been aching sore ever since, and he nurses his
wrath, and takes pleasure in its daily growth."

"He can do nothing, Malluch."

"Well," said Malluch, "that involves another explanation, which I
will give you, if we can draw nearer. But see!--the hospitality
of the sheik begins early--the children are speaking to you."

The dromedaries stopped, and Ben-Hur looked down upon some little
girls of the Syrian peasant class, who were offering him their
baskets filled with dates. The fruit was freshly gathered, and not
to be refused; he stooped and took it, and as he did so a man in the
tree by which they were halted cried, "Peace to you, and welcome!"

Their thanks said to the children, the friends moved on at such
gait as the animals chose.

"You must know," Malluch continued, pausing now and then to dispose
of a date, "that the merchant Simonides gives me his confidence,
and sometimes flatters me by taking me into council; and as I
attend him at his house, I have made acquaintance with many of
his friends, who, knowing my footing with the host, talk to him
freely in my presence. In that way I became somewhat intimate
with Sheik Ilderim."

For a moment Ben-Hur's attention wandered. Before his mind's eye
there arose the image, pure, gentle, and appealing, of Esther,
the merchant's daughter. Her dark eyes bright with the peculiar
Jewish lustre met his in modest gaze; he heard her step as when
she approached him with the wine, and her voice as she tendered
him the cup; and he acknowledged to himself again all