ould hear it. Just as Ephraim and Miriam reached
the shore she shrieked aloud--a rude hand had torn the gold serpent from
her ear.

The cry pierced the youth's heart like a dagger-thrust and his cheeks
paled, for he recognized Kasana. The bodies beside her were those of her
nurse and the wife of the chief priest Bai.

Scarcely able to control himself, Ephraim thrust aside the men who
separated him from the object of the moment's assault, sprang on the
sand-hill at whose foot the chariot had rested, and shouted with glowing
cheeks in wild excitement:

"Back! Woe to any one who touches her!"

But a Hebrew woman, the wife of a brickmaker whose child had died in
terrible convulsions during the passage through the sea, had already
snatched the dagger from her girdle, and with the jeering cry "This for
my little Ruth, you jade!" dealt her a blow in the back. Then she raised
the tiny blood-stained weapon for a second stroke; but ere she could
give her enemy another thrust, Ephraim flung himself between her and
her victim and wrenched the dagger from her grasp. Then planting himself
before the wounded girl, he swung the blade aloft exclaiming in loud,
threatening tones:

"Whoever touches her, you robbers and murderers, shall mingle his blood
with this woman's." Then he flung himself beside Kasana's bleeding form,
and finding that she had lost consciousness, raised her in his arms and
carried her to Miriam.

The astonished plunderers speechlessly made way for a few minutes, but
ere he reached the prophetess shouts of: "Vengeance! Vengeance!" were
heard in all directions. "We found the woman: the booty belongs to
us alone!--How dares the insolent Ephraimite call us robbers and
murderers?--Wherever Egyptian blood can be spilled, it must flow!--At
him!--Snatch the girl from him!"

The youth paid no heed to these outbursts of wrath until he had laid
Kasana's head in the lap of Miriam, who had seated herself on the
nearest sand-hill, and as the angry throng, the women in front of the
men, pressed upon him, he again waved his dagger, crying: "Back--I
command you. Let all of the blood of Ephraim and Judah rally around me
and Miriam, the wife of their chief! That's right, brothers, and woe
betide any hand that touches her. Do you shriek for vengeance? Has it
not been yours through yonder monster who murdered the poor defenceless
one? Do you want your victim's jewels? Well, well; they belong to you,
and I will give you mine to b