One was Elder Fairley, leading the way to a tall figure in a black robe covering another coloured robe, and wearing a large white turban.

Not seeing the new-comers, the chairman was about to put the resolution; but a protesting hand from John Fairley stopped him, and in a strange silence the two new-comers mounted the platform.
David rose and advanced to meet them.

There flashed into his mind that this stranger in Eastern garb was Ebn Ezra Bey, the old friend of Benn Claridge, of whom his uncle had spoken and written so much.

The same instinct drew Ebn Ezra Bey to him--he saw the uncle's look in the nephew's face.

In a breathless stillness the Oriental said in perfect English, with a voice monotonously musical: "I came to thy house and found thee not.