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Why, he would never have even thought of doing this great work, if it had not been for Hanani; and he felt he could thoroughly trust him, and rely upon him entirely. His other choice was Hananiah, the ruler of the palace or the fort, which was a tower, standing in the temple courts on the spot on which, in Roman days, stood the Tower of Antonia.
What had brought Hanani back from Jerusalem we are not told; he may have wished once more to see his old father Hachaliah; but we can well imagine the joy with which he would be welcomed by all, and not the least by his brother Nehemiah. As they walk together through Shushan to the palace, the Rab-shakeh asks anxiously after Jerusalem. Has Ezra's work been successful? How are matters progressing?
Some thick material that had a heavy native scent about it such a scent as she remembered vaguely to hang about Hanani the ayah was thrust over her face and head muffling all outcry. Muscular arms gripped her with a fierce and ruthless mastery, and as they lifted and bore her away the nightmare was blotted from her brain as if it had never been. She sank into oblivion.... Was it night?
And that my lord the captain sahib lives is also true. Hanani swears it by her grey hairs." "Then where where is the captain sahib?" whispered Stella. The ayah shook her head. "It is not given to Hanani to know all things," she protested. "But she can find out. Does the mem-sahib desire her to find out?" "Yes," Stella breathed.
"Where are you?" she whispered. "I am just kneeling by your side," he said. "Don't tremble or be afraid! There is nothing to frighten you. Stella," his voice came almost in a whisper. "Hanani the ayah told you something in the ruined temple at Khanmulla. Can you remember what it was?" "Ah!" she said. "Do you mean about Ralph Dacre?" "I do mean that," he said.
After the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites had been appointed, I placed my brother Hanani, the commander of the castle, in charge of Jerusalem, for he was a faithful man and more God-fearing than many.
"Go on!" gasped Stella almost inarticulately. Hanani took up her tale again in a mysterious whisper that crept in eerie echoes about the ruined place in which they sat. "Mem-sahib, Hafiz said that there was doubtless a reason for which he feigned death. He said that Dacre sahib was a bad man, and my lord the captain sahib knew it.
It is possible that Nehemiah himself was at that time too young to go; it is also probable that Hachaliah, the father, having been born and brought up in Shushan, was hard to move. So Hanani set forth alone, and the brothers were parted. Twelve long years, and in all probability no news had reached the family in Shushan of the absent Hanani.
At last very, very slowly she spoke. "Mem-sahib, even in the desert the sun rises. There is always comfort for those who go forward even though they mourn." "Not for me," sobbed Stella. "Not for those who part in bitterness and never meet again!" "Never, mem-sahib?" Hanani yet gazed straight before her.
There was nothing more to be done. She might send yet again for Major Ralston. But of what avail? He had told her that he could do no more. The little life was slipping swiftly, swiftly, out of her reach. Very soon only the desert emptiness would be left. "The mem-sahib may trust her baba to Hanani," murmured the ayah behind the enveloping veil. "Hanani loves the baba too."
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