CHAPTER X.
THE WATCHWORD OF THE MAHDI Early the next day Israel set his face homeward, with this old word of the new prophet for his guide and motto: "Exact no more than is just; do violence to no man; accuse none falsely; part with your riches and give to the poor." That was all the answer he got out of his journey, and if any man had come to him in Tetuan with no newer story, it must have been an idle and a foolish errand; but after El Kasar, after Wazzan, after Mequinez, and now after Fez, it seemed to be the sum of all wisdom.
"I'll do it," he said; "at all risks and all costs, I'll do it." And, as a prelude to that change in his way of life which he meant to bring to pass he sent his men and mules ahead of him, emptied his pockets of all that he should not need on his journey, and prepared to return to his own country on foot and alone.

The men had first gaped in amazement, and then laughed in derision; and finally they had gone their ways by themselves, telling all who encountered them that the Sultan at Fez had stripped their master of everything, and that he was coming behind them penniless.
But, knowing nothing of this graceless service.

Israel began his homeward journey with a happy heart.

He had less than thirty dollars in his waistband of the more than three hundred with which he had set out from Tetuan; he was a hundred and fifty miles from that town, or five long days' travel; the sun was still hot, and he must walk in the daytime.

Surely the Lord would see it that never before had any man done so much to wipe out God's displeasure as he was now doing and yet would do.