metimes in iron. Be careful that I owe you no
more, lest you who to-day are paid in gold, to-morrow may receive the
iron, weighed out in the fashion of which I have spoken. Now, begone."

Metem gathered up the treasure, and hiding it in his ample robe, bowed
himself from the royal presence and out of the thorn-hedged camp.

"Without doubt I have been in danger," he said to himself, wiping his
brow, "since at one time that black brute, disregarding the sanctity
of an envoy, had it in his mind to torture and to kill me. So, so, king
Ithobal, Metem the Phoenician is also an honest merchant who 'always pays
his debts,' as you may learn in the market-places of Jerusalem, of Sidon
and of Zimboe, and I owe you a heavy bill for the fright you have given
me to-day. Little of Elissa's company shall you have if I can help it;
she is too good for a cross-bred savage, and if before I go from these
barbarian lands I can set a drop of medicine in your wine, or an arrow
in your gizzard, upon the word of Metem the Phoenician, it shall be done,
king Ithobal."

*****

When Metem reached Sakon and the envoys, he found that a message had
already been sent to them announcing that Ithobal would meet them
presently upon the plain outside his camp. But still the king did not
come; indeed, it was not until Sakon had despatched another messenger,
saying that he was about to return to the city, that at length Ithobal
appeared at the head of a bodyguard of black troops. Arranging these
in line in front of the camp, he came forward, attended by twelve or
fourteen counsellors and generals, all of them unarmed. Half-way between
his own line and that of the Phoenicians, but out of bowshot of either,
he halted.

Thereon Sakon, accompanied by a similar number of priests and nobles,
among whom were Aziel and Metem, all of them also unarmed, except for
the knives in their girdles, marched out to meet him. Their escort they
left drawn up upon the hillside.

"Let us to business, King," said Sakon, when the formal words of
salutation had passed. "We have waited long upon your pleasure, and
already troops move out from the city to learn what has befallen us."

"Do they then fear that I should ambush ambassadors?" asked Ithobal
hotly. "For the rest, is it not right that servants should bide at the
door of their king till it is his pleasure to open?"

"I know not what they fear," answered Sakon, "but at least we fear
nothing, for we are too many," and h