t of sight under the wall of this garth.

A moment after the word that the master had bidden a halt was passed up
the line, and one of the camel-drivers said: she stopped half-an-hour
ago to drop her young one, and we put him on the dam's back, and she
doesn't feel his weight. We shall rest for an hour between this and
Jerusalem, and when we lift him down he'll find the dug. But I've a
letter for you, Master, from Gaddi, who wishes to see you. I thought to
deliver it in Jerusalem. It was fortunate to meet you here. Gaddi will
see you half-a-day sooner than he hoped for. I shall get to him by
midday, Joseph said, raising his eyes from the letter. By midday,
Master? Why, in early morning I should have thought for, unless, indeed,
you bide here till the innkeeper opens his doors. I have business,
Joseph answered, with the Essenes that have settled in a cave above the
Brook Kerith. About whom, the camel-driver interjected, there be much
talk going in Jericho. They've disputed among themselves, some remaining
where they always were on the eastern bank of the Jordan, but ten or a
dozen going to the Brook Kerith, with Hazael for their president. And
for what reason? Joseph inquired. I have told you, Master, all I know,
and since you be going to the Brook Kerith the brethren themselves will
give reasons better than I can, even if I had heard what their reasons
be for differing among themselves. Whereupon Joseph bade his caravan
proceed onward to Jerusalem.

We shall be surprised here by the daylight if we delay any longer, he
said, returning to Jesus, and, mounting their asses, they rode down the
hillside into a long, shallow valley out of which the track rose upwards
and upwards penetrating into the hills above Jericho.

CHAP. XXIV.

Now it is here we leave the track, Jesus said, and he turned his ass
into a little path leading down a steeply shelving hillside. We shall
find the brethren coming back from the hills, if they aren't back
already. It is daylight on the hills though it is night still in this
valley; and looking up they saw a greenish moon in the middle of a
mottled sky of pink and grey. Over the face of the moon wisps of vapour
curled and went out: and the asses, Joseph said, are loath to descend
the hillside for fear of this strange moon, or it may be they are
frightened by the babble of this brook; it seems to rise out of the very
centre of the earth. How deep is the gorge? Very deep, Jesus answered;