whispered to Ephraim:

"I cannot go with you. Creep through the chasm at your right to the
salt-pool. I will watch the guards. As soon as the cloud passes over
the moon and I clear my throat, start off. If you escape, join our
people. Greet my old father, assure him of my love and fidelity, and
tell him where I am being taken. Listen to his advice and Miriam's;
theirs is the best counsel. The cloud is approaching the moon,--not
another word now!"

As Ephraim still continued to urge him in a whisper to hold up his
pinioned arms, he ordered him to keep silence and, as soon as the moon
was obscured and the guard, who was pacing to and fro above their heads
began a conversation with the man who came to relieve him, Joshua cleared
his throat and, holding his breath, listened with a throbbing heart for
some sound in the direction of the chasm.

He first heard a faint scraping and, by the light of the fire which the
guards kept on the hill-top as a protection against wild beasts, he saw
Ephraim's empty couch.

He uttered a sigh of relief; for the youth must have entered the ravine.
But though he strained his ears to follow the crawling or sliding of the
fugitive he heard nothing save the footsteps and voices of the warders.

Yet he caught only the sound, not the meaning of their words, so intently
did he fix his powers of hearing upon the course taken by the fugitive.
How nimbly and cautiously the agile fellow must move! He was still in
the chasm, yet meanwhile the moon struggled victoriously with the clouds
and suddenly her silver disk pierced the heavy black curtain that