"ALLAH-U-KABAR"
Travelling through the night,--Naomi laughing and singing snatches in her new-found joy, and the Mahdi looking back at intervals at the huge outline of Tetuan against the blackness of the sky,--they came to the hut by Semsa before dawn of the following day.But they had come too late.Israel ben Oliel was not, after all, to set out for England.
He was going on a longer journey.His lonely hour had come to him, his dark hour wherein none could bear him company.On a mattress by the wall he lay outstretched, unconscious, and near to his end.
Two neighbours from the village were with him, and but for these he must have been alone--the mighty man in his downfall deserted by all save the great Judge and God.
What Naomi did when the first shock of this hard blow fell upon her, what she said, and how she bore herself, it would be a painful task to tell.Oh, the irony of fate! Ay, the irony of God! That scene, and what followed it, looked like a cruel and colossal jest--none the less cruel because long drawn out and as old as the days of Job.
It was useless to go out in search of a doctor.The country was as innocent of leechcraft as the land of Canaan in the days of Abraham.
All they could do was to submit, absolutely and unconditionally.
They were in God's hands.
The light was coming yellow and pink through the window under the eaves as Israel awoke to consciousness.He opened his eyes as if from sleep, and saw Naomi beside him.No surprise did he show at this, and neither did he at first betray pleasure.Dimly and softly he looked upon her, and then something that might have been a smile but for lack of strength passed like sunshine out of a cloud across his wasted face.Naomi pressed a pillow-under his loins, and another under his head, thinking to ease the one and raise the other.