GEORGE MOORE
67
in a narrow path bordering an abyss which led me to a cavern, the dwelling of some Essenes, to whom I preached next day; but when they were about to accept my Gospel one of them said: But our brother Jesus, of Nazareth, was put on the cross by Pilate. He had barely spoken these words when the shepherd that guided me hither came with a wallet, which he hung over my shoulders, saying: It is a three days' journey from Kerith to Caesarea.
apollos: Did he tell how he was saved from the cross?
paul: More I did not hear, but cried out: A madman a madman! and fled into the desert.
apollos: Where he found thee?
paul: By a well-head, where I had fallen in my sickness. After a long sleep, I said, I shall be able to follow thee, but he answered: To thy feet, to thy feet, for the hills are watched. He knew all the caves and we slept in them, journeying mostly at night.
timothy: And for food?
paul: We had food in our wallets.
apollos: And ye ate without speaking?
paul: To argue with a madman awakens the mad idea in him that often sleeps so soundly that we know not he is mad.
timothy: But if he were not a ghost or a phantom born of thy sickness—
paul: Neither ghost nor fetch, but the brother that slept one night on the bench beside me and went to search the hills for thee, Timothy; and having gotten news of thee from the shepherds, returned to guide me hither.
timothy: Yet you could not have parted without breaking silence.
paul: It was yesterday on the hills above Caesarea, as the winds were dropping and the sea-fowl hung on their long wings, each making in turn for the roosts by the sea, that he said: I have brought thee within a league of Caesarea and now must leave thee, Paul. Whither goest thou? I asked, and he answered: Back to Kerith, to the brethren that thy arrival did much di quiet. For they were divided, I said, some against, some for, my Gospel. And thou? To me, he answered, thou wert even a greater disquiet than to the other brethren, for my first thought was to go to Jerusalem to testify against thee; and Hazael, who
