Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/240

Rh at its conclusion. &quot;What did you say they were to ask at Jerusalem?&quot;

&quot;They were to ask ’Where is he that is born King of the Jews?’&quot; &quot;Was that all?&quot;

&quot;There was more to the question, but I cannot recall it.&quot;

&quot;And they found the child?&quot;

&quot;Yes, and worshipped him.&quot;

&quot;It is a miracle, Malluch.&quot;

&quot;Ilderim is a grave man, though excitable as all Arabs are. A lie on his tongue is impossible.&quot; Malluch spoke positively. Thereupon the dromedaries were forgotten, and, quite as unmindful of their riders, they turned off the road to the growing grass.

&quot;Has Ilderim nothing more of the three men?&quot; asked Ben-Hur. &quot;What became of them?&quot;

&quot;Ah, yes, that was the cause of his coming to Simonides the day of which I was speaking. Only the night before that day the Egyptian reappeared to him.&quot;

&quot;Where?&quot;

&quot;Here at the door of the tent to which we are coming.&quot;

&quot;How knew he the man?&quot;

&quot;As you knew the horses to-day by—face and manner.&quot;

&quot;By nothing else?&quot;

&quot;He rode the same great white camel, and gave him the same name—Balthasar, the Egyptian.&quot;

&quot;It is a wonder of the Lord’s?&quot;

Ben-Hur spoke with excitement.

And Malluch, wondering, asked &quot;Why so?&quot;

&quot;Balthasar, you said?&quot;

&quot;Yes. Balthasar, the Egyptian.&quot;

&quot;That was the name the old man gave us at the fountain to-day.&quot;

Then, at the reminder, Malluch became excited.

&quot;It is true,&quot; he said; &quot;and the camel was the same—and you saved the man’s life.&quot;

&quot;And the woman,&quot; said Ben-Hur, like one speaking to himself &quot;—the woman was his daughter.&quot;

He fell to thinking; and even the reader will say he was having a vision of the woman, and that it was more