Kenkenes returned to the outer chamber for the jar of
oil; but Rachel took it from him.
"Let me be thy handmaid," she said softly.
He did not protest, and she reentered the crypt.
"Luckily the mattress is large enough for the two of you," Kenkenes
observed to Deborah, "but it will be hard sleeping."
"The Hebrews are not spoiled with couches of down," she replied.
"There are enough of the wrappings in yonder to take off the hardness,
but even with the matting over them they will be gruesome things to
sleep upon. They would bewitch your dreams. But mayhap ye will not
suffer from one night's discomfort."
"Where go we to-morrow?"
Kenkenes did not answer immediately. Another plan for Rachel's
security had been growing in his mind, and his heart leaped at the
prospect of its acceptance by her.
"There is a large boat here, and we might go to On," he began at last.
"There is one way possible to save Rachel from this man as long as I
live, and I would she were to be persuaded into accepting the
conditions."
"Name them and let me judge."
He hesitated for proper words and his cheeks flushed. Deborah looked
at him with comprehension in her gaze.
"Rachel is not blind to my love for her, and thou, too, art discerning.
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