than Jesus said, come behind this rock and hide thyself quickly.  And when he was safely hidden Jesus said, now peep over the top and thou’lt see a shepherd leading his sheep along the hillside.  What of that?  Paul answered, and Jesus said, not much, only I am thinking whether it would be well to let him go his way without putting a question to him, or whether it would be better to leave thee here while I go to him with the intention of finding out from him if there be tidings going about that one Paul of Tarsus, a spreader of great heresies, a pestilential fellow, a stirrer-up of sedition, has been seen wandering, trying to find his way back to Caesarea.

The shepherd was passing away over the crest of the hill when Jesus said, the pretext will come to me on my way to him.  Do thou abide here till I return, and Paul watched him running, lurching from side to side over the rough ground towards the shepherd, still far away.  Will he overtake him before he passes out of sight and hearing? he asked himself.

The sheep were running merrily, and the breeze carried down to Paul’s ear the sound of the pipe, setting him thinking of the Patriarchs and then of his guide; only mad, he said, in one corner of his brain, convinced that he returned to the Essenes because he had said in Jerusalem that he was the Messiah.  A strange blasphemy, he muttered, and yet not strange enough to save the brethren from the infection of it.  It would seem that they believe with him that he suffered under Pilate, without knowing, however, for what crime he was punished; and a terrible curiosity arose in Paul to learn the true story of his guide’s life, who, he judged, might be led into telling it if care were taken not to arouse his suspicion.  But these madmen are full of cunning, he said to himself, and when Jesus returned Paul asked if he had discovered from the shepherd if an order was abroad from Jericho to arrest two itinerant preachers on their way to Caesarea.  Jesus answered him that he had put no direct question to the shepherd.  He had talked to him of the prospect of future rains, and we were both agreed, Jesus said, that the sky looked like rain, and he told me we should find water in the valley collected in pools among the rocks; he mentioned one by a group of fig-trees which we could not miss seeing.  Thou art safe, Paul, have no fear for thy safe arrival at Caesarea at midday to-morrow.  If a search had been ordered to arrest two wayfarers my shepherd would have heard of it, for it was about here that they would try to intercept us, and we shall do well to turn into a path that they will overlook even if they have sent out agents in pursuit of thee and Timothy.

CHAP.  XL.