there brooded a sullen thundercloud. It oppressed my spirits, and I
found myself less able to keep up with Shalah. The constant sight of
the lowlands filled me with anxiety for what might be happening in
those sullen blue flats. Gone was the glad forgetfulness of yesterday.
The Promised Land might smile as it pleased, but we were still on the
flanks of Pisgah with the Midianites all about us.

My recollection of that day is one of heavy fatigue and a pressing
hopelessness. Shalah behaved oddly, for he was as restive as a
frightened stag. No covert was unsuspected by him, and if I ventured to
raise my head on any exposed ground a long brown arm pulled me down. He
would make no answer to my questions except a grunt. All this gave me
the notion that the hills were full of the enemy, and I grew as restive
as the Indian. The crackle of a branch startled me, and the movement of
a scared beast brought my heart to my throat.

Then from a high place he saw something which sent us both crawling
into the thicket. We made a circuit of several miles round the head of
a long ravine, and came to a steep bank of red screes. Up this we
wormed our way, as flat as snakes, with our noses in the dusty earth. I
was dripping with sweat, and cursing to myself this new madness of
Shalah's. Then I found a cooler air blowing on the top of my prostrate
skull, and I judged that we were approaching the scarp of a ridge.
Shalah's hand held me motionless. He wriggled on a little farther, and
with immense slowness raised his head. His hand now beckoned me
forward, and in a few seconds I was beside him and was lifting my eyes
over the edge of the scarp.

Below us lay a little plain, wedged in between two mountains, and
breaking off on one side into a steep glen. It was just such a shelf as