shrill whistle, which roused their sleeping
comrades. A few seconds later the chief warder stood before him with a
burning torch, threw its light on his face, and sighed with relief when
he saw him. Not in vain had he bound him with double ropes; for he would
have been called to a severe reckoning at home had this particular man
escaped.

But while he was feeling the ropes on the prisoner's arms, the glare of
the burning torch, which lighted him, fell on the fugitive's rude,
deserted couch. There, as if in mockery, lay the gnawed rope. Taking it
up, he flung it at Joshua's feet, blew his whistle again and again, and
shouted: "Escaped! The Hebrew! Young Curly-head!"

Paying no farther heed to Joshua, he began the pursuit. Hoarse with fury,
he issued order after order, each one sensible and eagerly obeyed.

While some of the guards dragged the prisoners together, counted them,
and tied them with ropes, their commander, with the others and his dogs,
set off on the track of the fugitive.

Joshua saw him make the intelligent animals smell Ephraim's gnawed bonds
and resting-place, and beheld them instantly rush to the ravine. Gasping
for breath, he also noted that they remained in it quite a long time, and
at last--the moon meanwhile scattered the clouds more and more--darted
out of the ravine, and dashed to the water. He felt that it was fortunate
Ephraim had waded through instead of passing round it; for at its edge
the dogs lost the scent, and minute after minute elapsed while the
commander of the guards walked along the shore with the eager animals,
which fairly thrust their noses into the fugitive's steps, in order to
again get on the right trail. Their loud, joyous barking at last
announced that they had found it. Yet, even if they persisted in
following the runaway, the captive warrior no longer feared the worst,
for Ephraim had gained a long advance of his pursuers. Still, his heart
beat loudly enough and time seemed to stand still until the chief-warder
returned exhausted and unsuccessful.

The older man, it is true, could never have overtaken the swift-footed
youth, but the youngest and most active guards had been sent after the
fugitive. This statement the captain of the guards himself made with an
angry jeer.

The kindly-natured man seemed completely transformed,--for he felt what
had occurred as a disgrace which could scarcely be overcome, nay, a
positive misfortune.

The prisoner who had tried to deceiv