Out of the Triangle: A Story of the Far East

edily!" Timokles

woman's shrill cry was audible. The men came up with Timokles, and laying hold of him in a manner not wh

before. This spot was so far from that on which the building stood where he had been given to the leopard, that the lad concluded these people had not witnessed th

aptors, Timokles asked for something to eat. He was understood, and the three, taking Timokles, turned from the hills, and

small wooden statuette of the god Thoth. The son worked on a larger idol, the goddess Apet, or Thoueris, in the shape of a hippopotamus wal

ptor flashed. The father dropped his statuette, and, fiercely springing forward, forced

jaw were visible, and it was upon their making, as well as upon that of the wide nostrils, that the young man was expending his skill. The huge ears of the goddess descended on the fore-feet, which were placed

emblems of protection, a n

he God of heaven, and yet I am afraid! Shall I not put as much trust in the deliveri

resemblance of the maiden to the worker on the hippopotamus, Timokles had no doubt she was his sister. But when the girl,

e. He looked beseechingly at her now, as she stood transfixed, the shocked expression deepening in her eyes. If she

ze. Now, with assumed carelessness, she watched her brother's busy fingers, yet Timokles felt that her thoughts were of him. She had only to speak; to say, "This is the Christian who was thrown

bread, the father and the son, first tightening Timokles' thongs, went away in the direction of the fa

e whispered in the tongue

o make the quest

Timokles. The girl's awe-st

thee?" she question

y and truly. "Yea, O maiden, my G

ed alarmed. S

"O Christian, no one ever before came back from the Hou

moved with compassion. He leaned forward, eager

not see him, yet he seeth and loveth thee. Speak to him, and he will hear. He loveth us. He sent his Son to die for our sins. For tha

words, and then the fact of his having returned from the House of the Leopard seemed to over

could hear the voices of the mother and the daughter talking in the mother's tongue, but

thin the tent. The h

n black. There wer

me back!" tho

ame another man. Timokles heard and understood somet

hath been here before," declared the new voice eag

day I cannot make a flame by which thou shouldest see? It is the eleventh day of Tybi, concerning which it is commande

he new voice discontentedly.

wrath the superstitious father. "Bide thou til

not dare say more. After a short time, the quiet

bonds of his wrists. After prolonged attempts, he undid one knot, and by

hat he heard the faintest stir within. But a long si

e leopard's claws, and he could not reach the knots that held him. He str

do it!" he

r death, such death as was thought meet for a

ith me, O Lord!"

he conjectured there

cometh!" h

. Timokles waited, ye

was tortured so severely that he died in prison. Timokles remembered hearing of Ponticus, the boy who, in the same persecution, bore all the tortures unflinchingly, though he was but fifteen years old. And Blandina, the maiden, who, tortured, bleeding, mangled, still persisted

lexandrian home. Heaven would be sweet, but would his dear ones ever kno

o know thee!" prayed Tim

Book of the Christians, the papyrus that had

isible. The black tent descended to the very ground. Looking more closely, he discerned in the hand a knife. For an instant, Timokles

and so noiselessly that Timokles would almost have thought that the sight of the arm had been an illusion had he n

Him!" wished the young Egyptian, as he a

e's handle back under the edge of the black tent. He felt that

t to save me!" whispered Timokle

scovered there would be instant pursuit, theref