THE JUSTICE OF FLORUS On the following morning, when the roll of the neophytes of the Essenes was called, Caleb did not appear.

Nor did he answer to his name on the next day, or indeed ever again.

None knew what had become of him until a while after a letter was received addressed to the Curators of the Court, in which he announced that, finding he had no vocation for an Essenic career, he had taken refuge with friends of his late father, in some place not stated.

There, so far as the Essenes were concerned, the matter ended.

Indeed, as the peasant who was concealed in the gully when the Jew was murdered had talked of what he had witnessed, even the most simple-minded of the Essenes could suggest a reason for this sudden departure.