Aleph, the Chaldean; or, the Messiah as Seen from Alexandria

by E. F. Burr

She went to a desk, and wrote on a small sheet of papyrus as follows: “Your friends have found you. You shall have help soon.—R.”

She handed the paper to the Jew, saying, “Should you find him, perhaps you may be able to get this to him.”

The man hastened away. What should she do now, and during the days that might pass before she could hope to hear from the peddler? To sit still and wait, she felt to be impossible. Was there anything more she could be doing to keep her heart from preying on itself? She asked the question of Miriam as well as of herself.

Miriam had quickened and strengthened bodily under the rousing of thought and care for one outside of herself, and was sitting up thoughtfully in her bed. Yes, she thought that something further might be done. She doubted whether the students would be as good at getting information from the town-people as would some others. The frequent broils and jealousies between the two classes would put inquirers at a disadvantage. And, then, the people who would be most likely to notice the abduction, because most likely to be abroad in the evening, would be the humbler classes, whose homes had little to attract them. The humble stall-keepers; the daily workmen hanging about the street-corners; the street-boys, brimful of curiosity, afraid of nothing, ready to run after anything unusual; the watermen, that wait for jobs at the gate of the Moon or on the lake-wharves, would be more likely to notice and more free to speak of, to people of their own class, the passing of the soldiers.

“Suppose we ask the servants,” said she, “whether they know any of their own class living on the route from the khan to the Gate—any workmen, or watermen, or waifs likely to have been in that neighborhood waiting for what might turn up. If they themselves do not know of any such, they will be likely to know some who do; and so inquiries may be set in motion through all the humbler classes. Give the servants a holiday—several holidays, if necessary. We can dispense with them. I feel a return of my old vigor—the God of Israel be praised!” and, to the surprise of Rachel, the woman drew herself from the bed into a chair that stood by the side of it.

Rachel was too much absorbed in her object and plans to spend any time in speculating on that mysterious connection of the soul with the body that enables the former in its roused state to infuse its own healthy vigor into the latter. But she was glad that the pressure of circumstances had so opportunely transformed the helpless into a helper, and only begged her not to exert herself too much, as she carefully drew the wraps about her.

Rachel welcomed the suggestions of Miriam; and soon the many servants of that large household were abroad seeking for information, or seeking those who could seek it better than themselves.

Toward the close of the day Seti appeared to report that Sextus Flaccus had been found to have been in the city all the previous night, and that, apparently, no soldiers had been absent from their quarters. But Draco had disappeared from early in the evening, and had been traced to Mareotis—this seemed to Rachel a particle of light. No reports as yet from the students watching the gates and harbors, or from those seeking traces within the city. Rachel told Seti of the supplementary measures she had taken for getting information within the city, but she said nothing of the peddler and his expedition. I hardly know why. Perhaps it was because she thought the womanly logic of the movement would not commend itself to a philosopher.

The next morning Miriam was still better—indeed almost seemed to forget in her new object of absorbing interest that she was an invalid at all. As yet the servants had made no report; having come in late the night before and gone out again before light in the morning. Inactive waiting is an uneasy business at the best; so Rachel determined to have as little of it as possible. She sent off a servant with a basket of provisions to the house of the peddler with instructions to learn at what hour he left the city and in what sort of craft; for there was almost as much difference then as now in the speed of vessels. She found that the active man, within an hour from the time he left her, had managed to provide himself with a more attractive pack than he had ever before carried, and to get on board a well-appointed merchant vessel just starting southward with a fair wind and not a few oars. This was some comfort. She prayed that the wind might follow fast, and that the rowers might be able and willing at their toil.