he back of her hand she disturbed
the dice. "I am Ashtaroth, am I not?"

Questioningly the emir explored the unfathomable eyes that gazed into his.

On their surface floated an acquiescence to the tacit offer of his own.
Then he nodded, and Mary turned and gathered the jewels from the cloth of
byssus where they lay.

"I tell you he is the Messiah!" It was the angry disputant shouting at the
little man.

"Who is? What are you talking about?"

Though the hubbub had ceased, throughout the hall were the mutterings of
dogs disturbed.

"Jeshua," the disputant answered; "Jeshua the Nazarene."

A Pharisee, very vexed, his bonnet tottering, gnashed back: "The Messiah
will uphold the law; this Nazarene attacks it."

A Scribe interrupted: "Many things are to distinguish his advent. The
light of the sun will be increased a hundredfold, the orchards will bear
fruit a thousand times more abundantly. Death will be forgotten, joy will
be universal, Elijah will return."

"But he has!"

Antipas started. The Scribe trembled with rage. But the throng had caught
the name of Elijah, and knew to whom the disputant referred--a man in
tattered furs whom a few hours before they had seen dragged away by a
negro naked to the waist, and some one shouted:

"Iohanan is Elijah."

Baba Barbulah stood up and turned to whence the voice had come:

"In the footprints of the Anointed impudence shall increase, and the face
of the generation shall be as the face of a dog. It may be," he added,
significantly--"it may be that you speak the truth."

The sarcasm was lost. The musicians in the gallery, who had been playing
on flute and timbrel, began now on the psalteron and the native sambuca.
Behind was a row of lute-players; but most in view was a trignon, an
immense Egyptian harp, at which with nimble fingers a fair girl plucked.

In the shadow Herodias leaned. At a signal from her the musicians attacked
the prelude of a Syrian dance, and in the midst of the assemblage a figure
veiled from head to foot suddenly appeared. For a moment it stood very
still; then the veil fell of itself, and from the garrison a shout went
up:

"Salome! Salome!"

Her hair, after an archaic Chanaanite fashion, was arranged in the form of
a tower. Her high bosom was wound about with protecting bands. Her waist
was bare. She wore long pink drawers of silk, and for girdle she had the
blue buds of the lotus, which are symbols of virginity. She was young and
exquisi