e
altered. A long, weary day lies before us, Esora, and we shall have to
take it in turns, and neither can be away for more than two hours at a
time from the house. Matred will be asking for instructions whether she
is to feed the poultry or to kill a chicken. Though it be the Sabbath,
she'll find reasons to be about because we would have her indoors. And
when I'm watching by the sick man, Esora returned, she'll be asking:
where, Master, is Esora? Thou'lt have to invent excuses. We've forgotten
the servants, Esora. Give me the key. I must run with it and unlock the
door of the passage. Do you wait here till I return.

He hoped to find his servants asleep, and his hopes were fulfilled; and
after rousing them with vigorous reproof for their laziness, he
descended the stairs, thinking of the letter he would devise for them to
carry to Jericho. These men, Sarea and Asiel, were his peril. Once they
were away on their journey to Jericho he would feel easier. But all
these hours I shall suffer, he said. But, Master, they know the cottage
to be empty. One never can think, my good Esora, whither idle men will
be wandering, and the risk is great. Having gone so far we must have
courage, Esora answered. Now give me the key, and I'll lock myself in
with him; we'll take it in turns, and the day will not be as long
passing as you think for. It is now six o'clock, he answered: twelve
hours will have to pass away before the men start for Jericho. And then
the night will be before us, replied Esora. I hadn't thought of the
night, Joseph answered, and she reminded him that it might be days
before his friend, who had been scourged, could recover sufficiently for
him to leave. For he won't always remain here, she added. No! no! Joseph
replied, and gave her the key of the cottage, and returned to the house
to tell Sarea and Asiel that he hoped they would remain indoors during
the Sabbath, for he wished them to start for Jericho as soon as the
Sabbath was over. They shall ride my horses, he said to himself, and
bear letters that will detain them in Jericho for some weeks, and if
Jesus be not well enough to leave me, another letter will delay their
return. It can be so arranged, with a little luck on our side!

The lantern suddenly flashed into his mind. He had left it on the table
in his room and Esora would see it. But why shouldn't she see the
lantern? The centurion and the carrier and Martha and Mary all knew that
he had brought from Jer