but so convinced did the animal seem that the conduct of the journey
should be left entirely to his judgment that it was vain to ask him to
hasten his pace, and he continued to clamber down loose heaps of stones,
seeking every byway unnecessarily, Joseph could not help thinking, but
bringing his rider and himself safely, he was forced to admit, at the
foot of the hills over against Jericho. Another toiling ascent was
begun, and Joseph felt a trickle of rain down his spine, while the mule
seemed to debate with himself whether shelter was to be sought, and
spying a rock a little way up the hillside he trotted straight to it and
entered the cave--the rock projected so far beyond a hill that it might
be called a cave, and better shelter from the rain they could not have
found. A wonderful animal, thou'rt surely, knowing everything, Joseph
said, and the mule shook the rain out of his long ears, and Joseph stood
at the mouth of the cave, watching the rain falling and gathering into
pools among the rocks, wondering the while if this land was cast away
into desert by the power of the Almighty God because of the worship of
the Golden Calf; and then remembering that it was cast into desert for
the sins of the cities of the plain, he said: how could I have thought
else? As soon as this rain ceases we will go up the defile and at the
end of it the lake will lie before us deep down under the Moab
mountains. He remembered too that he would have to reach to the cenoby
before the day was over, or else sleep in Jericho.

The sky seemed to be brightening: at that moment he heard footsteps. He
was unarmed and the hills were infested by robbers. The steps continued
to approach....

His hope was that the man might be some innocent shepherd in search of a
lost ewe: if he were a robber, that he might pass on, unsuspicious of a
traveller seeking shelter from the rain in a cave a little way up the