to cross the sea, they were now animated by the most sacred of all
duties, by the law which required them to avenge the blood of their
fathers and brothers, and they dared to plan a fresh incursion in which
they should put forth all their resources. They were at the same time
obliged to exercise the greatest caution, and collected their forces of
young men in the valleys that lay hidden in the long range of coast-
hills.

The passage of the narrow arm of the sea that parted them from Arabia
Petraea, was to be effected in the first dark night; the sun, this
evening, had set behind heavy storm-clouds that had discharged themselves
in violent rain and had obscured the light of the waning moon. So they
drew their boats and rafts down to the sea, and, unobserved by the
sentinels on the mountain who had taken shelter from the storm under
their little penthouses, they would have reached the opposite shore, the
mountain, and perhaps even the oasis, if some one had not warned the
anchorites--and that some one was Hermas.

Obedient to the commands of Paulus, the lad had appropriated three of his
friend's gold pieces, had provided himself with a bow and arrows and some
bread, and then, after muttering a farewell to his father who was asleep
in his cave, he set out for Raithu. Happy in the sense of his strength
and manhood, proud of the task which had been set him and which he deemed
worthy of a future soldier, and cheerfully ready to fulfil it even at the
cost of his life, he hastened forward in the bright moonlight. He
quitted the path at the spot where, to render the ascent possible even to
the vigorous desert-travellers, it took a zigzag line, and clambered from
rock to rock, up and down in a direct line; when he came to a level spot
he flew on as if pursuers were at his heels. After sunrise he refreshed
himself with a morsel of food, and then hurried on again, not heeding the