“Ye-e-es.”
“And Har-Barim and Kar-Tharn a corruption of Abiram and Dathan?”
“Ye-es.”
“Well,” concluded Alan triumphantly, “this is the conclusion I have come to. The language of these people is a corruption of Hebrew.”
“What?”
“I’m certain of it, and I am surprised we never thought of it before. Of course it was our first visit to the temple to-day since I came here, and I never noticed those signs before—but to-day as I looked at them they seemed oddly familiar, and it suddenly dawned on me in a flash. Now we ought to find it very easy to pick up the patois they speak—we both used to know something of Hebrew in the old days at college.”
They were almost too excited to say much more, when suddenly Alan brought his hand down on the table with a bang that made Desmond start.
“I’ve got it, Dez old boy,” said he.
“Got what?”
“Why think of your Bible. In the—let me see—oh never mind—somewhere in Numbers, I think, we get the story of Korah, Abiram and Dathan.”