ge him in a whisper to hold up his
pinioned arms, he ordered him to keep silence and, as soon as the moon
was obscured and the guard, who was pacing to and fro above their
heads began a conversation with the man who came to relieve him, Joshua
cleared his throat and, holding his breath, listened with a throbbing
heart for some sound in the direction of the chasm.

He first heard a faint scraping and, by the light of the fire which the
guards kept on the hill-top as a protection against wild beasts, he saw
Ephraim's empty couch.

He uttered a sigh of relief; for the youth must have entered the ravine.
But though he strained his ears to follow the crawling or sliding of the
fugitive he heard nothing save the footsteps and voices of the warders.

Yet he caught only the sound, not the meaning of their words, so
intently did he fix his powers of hearing upon the course taken by the
fugitive. How nimbly and cautiously the agile fellow must move! He was
still in the chasm, yet meanwhile the moon struggled victoriously with
the clouds and suddenly her silver disk pierced the heavy black curtain
that concealed her from the gaze of men, and her light was reflected
like a slender, glittering pillar from the motionless pool of
salt-water, enabling the watching Joshua to see what was passing below;
but he perceived nothing that resembled a human form.

Had the fugitive encountered any obstacle in the chasm? Did some
precipice or abyss hold him in its gloomy depths? Had--and at the
thought he fancied that his heart had stopped beating--Had some gulf
swallowed the lad when he was groping his way through the night?

How he longed for some noise, even the faintest, from the ravine! The
silence was terrible. But now! Oh, would that it had continued! Now
the sound of falling stones and the crash of earth sliding after echoed
loudly through the still night air. Again the moonlight burst through
the cloud-curtain, and Joshua perceived near the pool a living creature
which resembled an animal more than a human being, for it seemed to
be crawling on four feet. Now the water sent up a shower of glittering
spray. The figure below had leaped into the pool. Then the clouds again
swallowed the lamp of night, and darkness covered everything.

With a sigh of relief Joshua told himself that he had seen the flying
Ephraim and that, come what might, the escaping youth had gained a
considerable start of his pursuers.

But the latter neither remai