The Days of Mohammed Part 9

"Can you keep a still tongue when it is necessary, Jew?"

The peddler placed his fingers on his lips, rolled up his eyes, and nodded a.s.sent.

"Then come with me to the house of Amzi the benevolent,--my Meccan home,--and I shall explain."

When seated comfortably on divans in the coolest part of the house, Yusuf told the story of the gold cup, and intimated that Abraham's wandering life and the numberless throngs of people with whom his trade threw him in contact, gave him facilities, impossible to others, of doing a little detective work in a quiet way.

The Jew listened, silent and motionless, with his eyes fixed on a lotus-bud carved on the cornice. Only once did he turn and fix his little round eyes sharply on the priest's face.

"There is just one more thing--" continued Yusuf, then he stopped. He was about to tell of the little carnelian stone, when his eye fell upon one of the numerous rings upon the Jew's fat fingers. There, in the center of it, was a small cavity from which, apparently, a jewel of some sort had fallen from its setting.

Yusuf almost sprang to his feet in the excitement of the discovery.

"Well?" asked the Jew, noting the pause.

"I will tell you later," said Yusuf. "For the present--have some dates, will you not?"

A servant entered with a tray on which were fruits and small cakes.

The peddler besought Yusuf, for friendship's sake, to eat with him; but the Persian made a gesture of disgust.

"I have already eaten," he said. "Overeating in Mecca in the hot season is not wise. Abraham, do you always wear so many rings on your fingers?"

"Oh, no," returned the Jew, "sometimes I wear them; sometimes I carry them for months in my belt. This"--pointing to a huge band of ancient workmanship--"is the most curious one of the lot. I got it for carrying a bundle of ma.n.u.script from a man at Oman to your friend Amzi, here. It seems that Amzi had once lived with him at Oman, but the man--I forget his name--went inland to Teheran, or some other place in Persia, and Amzi, after traveling about for two or three years, settled in Mecca.

This one"--and he pointed out the ring on which Yusuf's eyes were fixed--"is the most expensive of the lot, but a stone fell out of it once when I was carrying it in my belt."

"Did you not look in your belt for it?"

"No use; it had worked out between the st.i.tches. I had no idea where I lost it."

"Have you had that ring long?"

"Long! Why, that ring has not been off my person for fifteen years."

"I suppose you would not sell it?"

The peddler shrugged his shoulders, and looked up with a shrewd glance.

"That depends on how much money it would bring."

"I have little idea of the value of such rings," said the Persian, "but I have a friend who, I am convinced, would appreciate that one. I should like to present it to him. Will you take this for it?"

He drew forth a coin worth three times the value of the ring. The peddler immediately closed the bargain and handed the ring over, then devoted his attention again to the table.

The priest went to the window. He drew the little stone from his bosom and slipped it into the cavity. It fitted exactly. He then walked back to the table, and held it before the astonished Jew.

"How now, Jew?" he said with a smile. "Saw you such a gem before?"

"My very own carnelian!" exclaimed the peddler. "Where did you find it?"

"You are sure it is yours?"

"Sure! On my oath, it is mine. There is not another such stone in Arabia, with that streak across the top."

The priest laid his hand on the Jew's shoulder and bent close to him.

"That stone," he said, "was found in the house of Nathan the Jew, beside the stolen cup. How came it there?"

The little Jew turned pale. His guilt showed in his face. He knew that he was undone.

With a quick, serpent-like movement, he attempted to escape, but the priest's grasp was firm as a vise.

"No, peddler!" he said, "you may go, but it must be with me. To the magistrate you must go, and that right speedily. The innocent must no longer suffer in your rightful place. Come, Aza,"--to an attendant who had been in the room--"your tongue may be needed to supplement mine."

The Jew's little eyes rolled around restlessly. He was a thorough coward, and his teeth chattered with fear as he was half-dragged into the blinding glare of the street, and down the long, crooked way, with a crowd of beggars and saucy boys following in the wake of the trio. Once or twice again he made a quick and sudden movement to elude the grasp of his captors, but the priest's grip was firm and his muscle like steel.

Justice was in Yusuf's heart, and his anxiety to procure Nathan's release was so great that he strode on, almost forgetting the poor little Jew, who was obliged to keep up a constant hobbling run to save himself from being dragged to the ground.

In the hall of justice the usual amount of questioning went on, but the evidence afforded by the ring was so conclusive that the order for Nathan's release and the peddler's imprisonment was soon given.

Yusuf accompanied the guards to Nathan's cell. The poor prisoner was sitting on the bare clay with his head buried on his knee. An unusual clamor sounded outside of the door. The heavy bolt was withdrawn, and the next moment Yusuf rushed in, crying, "Free, Nathan, free!"

Nathan fell on the other's bosom. The sudden joy was too much for him, and he could only lie, like a little child, sobbing on the breast of the stalwart priest.

The warden rattled the bolts impatiently. "Come, there's room outside!"

he said. "I have not time to stand here all day!"

"Pardon us," said the priest, gently. "We go; yet, warden, ere we depart, may I ask you to deal leniently with that poor wretch?" and he pointed to the Jew, who was now crouched shivering in his chains.

"We but do as we are ordered," returned the warden unfeelingly. "The officers will be here presently with the scourge; we can not prevent that."

The peddler winced, and Nathan raised a face full of pity. "Warden," he said, "if you have a drop of mercy in your heart, if you hope for mercy for yourself, treat him as a man. Let him not die for want of a pittance of water."

He turned the sleeve of his loose garment back to expose the emaciated arm with the bones showing through the loose skin. "There," he said, "let that touch your heart, if heart you have, and spare him. Poor Abraham!"--turning to the peddler--"did I not see you here, the joy of my release would be unspeakable."

But Abraham only turned to bestow a look of hate and malice upon the priest.

Then Yusuf and Nathan pa.s.sed out into the pure, fresh air, now growing cool with the approach of evening. Never did air seem so pure and sweet; never did swallows twitter so gladly; never did the peak of Abu Kubays shine so gloriously in the sun; never did the voices of people sound so joyous or their faces beam so brightly.

"Come," said Nathan, "to my wife and children, that we may all return thanks together. Verily 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.' 'Blessed be G.o.d, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.' 'I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.' 'My flesh faileth, but G.o.d is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.'"

So, uttering exclamations from the pages of Scripture, did the devout Jew pa.s.s onward to his home, which was once more filled with "joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of melody." Before leaving, Yusuf presented him with the ring containing the little stone, as a memento of his deliverance.

And Abraham? He received the full weight of the scourge; and may we be pardoned in antic.i.p.ating, and say that for two days he lay nursing his wrath and his wounds; but, on the third day after his imprisonment, his agility suddenly returned. He managed in some inexplicable way known only to himself to work free of his fetters, and when the keeper came with food in the evening, blinded by the dim light of the cell, he did not perceive the little peddler crouched in a heap in the middle of the floor.

Scarcely was the door opened when the Jew bounced like a ball past the keeper's feet, almost upsetting him; then, darting like an arrow between the astonished guards without, he was off. A hue and cry was raised, but the little peddler had disappeared as completely as if the earth had opened up and swallowed him.