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.
The oasis was composed of several disconnected tracts, and Timokles heard that in the western part of the oasis there was a lake.
Suddenly the lad became aware of a number of angrily excited voices.
At a short distance stood Pentaur the merchant, surrounded by a group of men, but what he said was lost in the confusion of tongues.
At length the merchant made a careless gesture, and walked away.
"Take the Christian!" shouted fierce voices.
A man ran straight from the group to Timokles.