his, and said ay
he could do that much, and that as three possessors had already put
invocations to their gods upon the blade it was but fit I should do so
in my turn.

"I liked not the quip, nor the evening of a Christian man's belief to
idolatrous worship, but yet the idea of the Christian charm, if one
might call it so, had taken fast possession of my mind, and I felt as
though it were snatching the good blade from the powers of heathenesse
and giving it to God. So I put what I would say in few words, and the
old man wrought upon it till he had it to his mind, and at the last took
a pencil dipped in some wizard's ink or other and drew these signs upon
the sword as you see them, bidding me take it to an armorer and have
them cut in just as they stood. So I did, choosing, you may be sure, the
armorer who had given me the sword, and showing him, as I have you, that
this is no heathen charm, but the sign of a Christian man's faith."

"And what do they mean, all three of them?" asked Alden reverently. "I
see the figures 1149 graved clearly enough, but what mean the other two
rows?"

"My lad, thou seest wrong. The 1 and 4 and 9 are but symbols of letters
not there set down, and the whole, partly from that same foolish fancy I
told thee of, and partly because the old scholar bade me never tell it
lest some other man should steal his learning, and partly because Gideon
hath kept the first secret so many years that I feel like trusting him
with another, for all these reasons I promised myself and the scholar
and Gideon that I would never tell the thing to mortal man, nor even
the rendering of the other devices; and lest I should be tempted to
forego my word, sith I claim to be no stronger than Samson, or lest some
one should surprise the secret unawares, I cut the piece of parchment in
two pieces, and handed them back to the old scholar, who disguised not
his huge content thereat. So thou seest, John, two of the three
inscriptions I could not unravel to thee if I would, and of the third
thou wilt not ask me, since it is guarded by a promise."

"Surely, Master, it is not I who would ask you to break it," said John
simply. "But the name of Gideon?"

"Didst never read of Gideon in Holy Writ, John? A mighty soldier before
the Lord who hewed down his father's idol-grove and came out from among
his own people and carved his own way in the world. Ever as I read his
story, I mind me of a man I knew in Lancashire who went to the