CHAPTER V

The desert lay under a leaden sky. The yellow undulating sandy plain
was like a frozen sea that had no end, and so far as eye could see was
only bounded by the dark orb of heaven. Here and there, grey, cleft,
cone-shaped rocks and blunt-cornered stone boulders or blocks and
flat-topped stones not unlike a table rose out of the sand-ocean. Two
such stones were situated close together; one was partly covered by the
yellow quicksand, the other stood higher out of the ground. On each of
them lay a man stretched at full length. One, strong and sinewy, lay
on his face, supporting his black-bearded cheeks with his hands so that
his half-raised face could gaze over the barren plain. The other, a
smaller-made man, lay on his back, making a pillow of his arms, and
gazed at the gloomy sky. Both wore the Bedouin dress and were provided
with arms which were fastened into, or suspended from, their clothes.
Their woolly heads were protected by kerchiefs. Their complexion was
as brown as the bark of the pine-tree, their eyes big and sparkling,
their lips full and red. The one had a snub nose; the nose of the
other was long and thin. So do these men of the desert appear to my
mind's eye.

"Dismas," said the snub-nosed man, "What do you see in the sky?"

"Barabbas," replied the other, "what do you see in the desert?"

"Are you waiting for manna to fall from the sky?" said Barabbas. "Do