Bound to another slave to prevent escape, Timokles traveled with the
company that night, and before morning the oasis of Ammon, "Oasis
Ammonia," was reached. It was a green and shady valley, several
miles long and three broad, in the midst of sand-hills. Here, over
five hundred years before, had come the founder of Alexandria,
Alexander the Great, to visit the oracle of Ammon, the god figured
to be like a man having the head and horns of a ram. The statue of
Amun-Ra had then been loaded with jewels, through the reverence of
the merchants who halted their caravans at this oasis, and who left
their treasures in the strong rooms of the temple, while resting the
camels under the palm trees.
All this Timokles remembered, as he stood beside the steaming
Fountain of the Sun in the oasis, and watched the bubbles that
constantly rose to the surface of that famous body of water.
"O branded-cheeked cutter of dykes, art thou in very truth a
Christian?" contemptuously asked the slave that guarded Timokles.
"I am, O friend," gently answered the lad.
"Ill shalt thou fare in this oasis, then," threatened the slave.
Timokles' eyes wandered over the landscape. The surface of the oasis
was undulating, and on the north it rose into high, limestone hills.
Date palms abounded near by Timokles. He could see the inhabitants
of the village, and the wanderers from farther, more isolated homes.
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