The ex-chief did not fail to note that everything was ready, as if in the
midst of war, for defence against a foe. Every man was at his post, and
beside the huge brazen disk on the tower stood sentinels, each holding in
his hand a heavy club to deal a blow at the approach of the expected
enemy; for though as far as the eye could reach, neither tree nor house
was visible, the sound of the metal plate would be heard at the next
fortress in the Etham line, and warn or summon its garrison.

To be stationed in the solitude of this wilderness was not a punishment,
but a misfortune; and the commander of the army therefore provided that
the same troops should never remain long in the desert.

Joshua himself, in former days, had been in command of the most southerly
of these fortresses, called the Migdol of the South; for each one of the
fortifications bore the name of Migdol, which in the Semitic tongue means
the tower of a fortress.

His people were evidently expected here; and it was not to be supposed
that Moses had led the tribes back to Egypt. So they must have remained
in Succoth or have turned southward. But in that direction rolled the
waters of the Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea, and how could the Hebrew
hosts pass through the deep waters?

Hosea's heart throbbed anxiously at this thought, and all his fears were
to find speedy confirmation; for he heard the commander of the fortress
tell the captain of the prisoners' guards, that the Hebrews had
approached the line of fortifications several days before, but soon
after, without assaulting the garrison, had turned southward. Since then
they seemed to have been wandering in the desert between Pithom and the