Plotinus, the bishop, at whose instigation the fugitives had been chased, could fill up what the damsel might choose to conceal.

He had started to follow the patriarch immediately after the pursuers had set out, and had only returned from Upper Egypt early on the previous day.  On his arrival he had forwarded to the Vekeel two indictments brought against Orion by the prelate:  the first relating to the evasion of the nuns; the other to the embezzlement of a costly emerald; the rightful property of the church.  These accusations were what had encouraged the Negro to confiscate the young man’s estate, particularly as the bitter tone of the patriarch’s document sufficiently proved that in him he had found an ally.

Paula must next be placed in safe custody, and he had no doubt whatever that her statement would incriminate Orion in some degree.  He would gladly have cross-examined her at once, but he had other matters in hand to-day.

The longest part of his task was ransacking the treasurer’s office; Nilus himself had to conduct the search.  Everything which he pointed out as a legal document, title-deed, contract for purchase or sale, revenue account or the like, was at once placed in oxcarts or on camels, with the large sums of gold and silver coin, and carried across the river under a strong escort.  All the more antique deeds and the family archives, the Vekeel left untouched.  He was indeed an indefatigable man, for although these details kept him busy the whole day, he allowed himself no rest nor did he once ask for the refreshment of food or a cooling draught.  As the day went on he enquired again and again for the bishop, with increasing impatience and irritation.  It would have been his part to wait on the patriarch, but who was Plotinus?  Thin-skinned, like all up-starts in authority, he took the bishop’s delay as an act of personal contumely.  But the shepherd of the flock at Memphis was not a haughty prelate, but a very humble and pious minister.  His superior, the patriarch, had entrusted him with an important mission to Amru or his lieutenant, and yet he could let the Vekeel wait in vain, and not even send him a message of explanation; in the afternoon, however, his old housekeeper dispatched the acolyte who was attached to his person to seek Philippus.  Her master, a hale and vigorous man, had gone to bed by broad day-light a few hours after his return home, and had not again left it.  He was hot and thirsty, and did not seem fully conscious of where he was or of what was happening.

Plotinus had always maintained that prayer was the Christian’s best medicine; still, as his poor body had become alarmingly heated the old woman ventured to send for the physician; but the messenger came back saying that Philippus was absent on a journey.  This was in fact the case:  He had quitted Memphis in obedience to a letter from Haschim.  The merchant’s unfortunate son was not getting better.  There seemed to be an injury to some internal organ, which threatened his life.  The anxious father besought the leech, in whom he had the greatest confidence, to hasten to Djidda, there to examine the sufferer and undertake the case.  At the same time he desired that Rustem should join him as soon as his health would permit.