Book One: THE PIONEERS




CHAPTER I

THE HERO OF THE LONG TRAIL

_St. Paul_

(Dates, b. A.D. 6, d. A.D. 67[2])


_The Three Comrades._

The purple shadows of three men moved ahead of them on the tawny
stones of the Roman road on the high plateau of Asia Minor one bright,
fresh morning.[3] They had just come out under the arched gateway
through the thick walls of the Roman city of Antioch-in-Pisidia. The
great aqueduct of stone that brought the water to the city from the
mountains on their right[4] looked like a string of giant camels
turned to stone.

Of the three men, one was little more than a boy. He had the oval face
of his Greek father and the glossy dark hair of his Jewish mother.
The older men, whose long tunics were caught up under their girdles
to give their legs free play in walking, were brown, grizzled, sturdy
travellers. They had walked a hundred leagues together from the