Jack saw a pitcher of water cooled with snow, and a cup beside it, not far off. He poured out some and brought it.
"Will you lift my head a little and put it to my lips?" Gabriel said. "My hands are cut in pieces. Thank you. That is good. I want to tell you how God brought home the three who were away from us that day."
"The three?"
"You did not know that our dear grandfather had gone, the night before, to visit his old friends the Nazarians? And he found them so frightened, with only women there in the house, that he stayed. But in the morning, when we knew what was coming, Kevork went to seek for him, that we might die all together. Neither of them ever came back to us. Only yesterday did we hear about Kevork. One of the sheiks made his followers bring him all the strong, fine-looking young men he could find. About a hundred were brought to him. He had them held down hand and foot by his followers, while he cut their throats with his own hand, reciting all the time verses from the Koran. Kevork was among them."
"And our dear Father Hohannes?"
"He was at the Nazarians, as I said. He thought that perhaps the Turks, having killed the men, might be satisfied and go away. So he bade the women conceal themselves, and sat calmly at the door reading his Bible. When they saw him there, they said, 'You are an old man with white hair; we will spare you, if you will only acknowledge the Prophet. You need not speak; just lift up one finger.' 'I will not lift up one finger,' said he. Then they dragged him out into the street to kill him, and—and—Yon Effendi, I can tell you no more. Spare me!" He turned his white face away with a look of agony.
"Dear boy! dear child! tell me no more if it hurts you so," Jack whispered soothingly. "However dreadful it may have been, it is over now."
"It was not so very dreadful," Gabriel said, after a pause. "It was soon over. But oh, Yon Effendi, there is more! I said three were absent from us." His dark, wistful eyes, so full of pain, gazed piteously into the wondering face bent over him.
A distant suspicion of who the third might mean dawned for the first time on John Grayson. "You said three were brought home to Heaven—Hohannes, Kevork, and——"
"Shushan."