d high up, and sprinkled the boat and him
with a shower of wet and twinkling diamond drops. He began to work the
oars again, reflecting as he did so, that he had something better to
do than to think of a woman. Indeed, he found it easy to forget Sirona
completely, for in the next few days he went through every excitement of
a warrior's life.

Scarcely two hours after his start from Raithu he was standing on the
soil of another continent, and, after finding a hiding-place for his
boat, he slipped off among the hills to watch the movements of the
Blemmyes. The very first day he went up to the valley in which they were
gathering; on the second, after being many times seen and pursued, he
succeeded in seizing a warrior who had been sent out to reconnoitre, and
in carrying him off with him; he bound him, and by heavy threats learned
many things from him.

The number of their collected enemies was great, but Hermas had hopes of
outstripping them, for his prisoner revealed to him the spot where their
boats, drawn up on shore, lay hidden under sand and stones.

As soon as it was dusk, the anchorite in his boat went towards the place
of embarkation, and when the Blemmyes, in the darkness of midnight, drew
their first bark into the water, Hermas sailed off ahead of the enemy,
landed in much danger below the western declivity of the mountain, and
hastened up towards Sinai to warn the Pharanite watchmen on the beacon.

He gained the top of the difficult peak before sunrise, roused the lazy
sentinels who had left their posts, and before they were able to mount
guard, to hoist the flags or to begin to sound the brazen cymbals, he
had hurried on down the valley to his father's cave.

Since his disappearance Miriam had incessantly hovered round Stephanus'
dwelling, and had fetched fresh water for the old man every morning,
noon and evening, even after a new nurse, who was clumsier and more
peevish, had taken Paulus' place. She lived on roots, and on the bread
the sick man gave her, and at night she lay down to sleep in a deep dry
cleft of the rock that she had long known well. She quitted her hard bed
before daybreak to refill the old man's pitcher, and to chatter to him
about Hermas.

She was a willing servant to Stephanus because as often as she went to
him, she could hear his son's name from his lips, and he rejoiced at her
coming because she always gave him the opportunity of talking of Hermas.

For many weeks the sick man h