e him by the shout of 'jackal!' was
doubtless the fugitive's accomplice. Prince Siptah, too, who had
interfered with the duties of his office, he loudly cursed. But nothing
of the sort should happen again; and he would make the whole band feel
what had fallen to his lot through Ephraim. Therefore he ordered the
prisoners to be again loaded with chains, the ex-chief fastened to a
coughing old man, and all made to stand in rank and file before the fire
till morning dawned.

Joshua gave no answer to the questions his new companion-in-chains
addressed to him; he was waiting with an anxious heart for the return of
the pursuers. At times he strove to collect his thoughts to pray, and
commended to the God who had promised His aid, his own destiny and that
of the fugitive boy. True, he was often rudely interrupted by the captain
of the guards, who vented his rage upon him.

Yet the man who had once commanded thousands of soldiers quietly
submitted to everything, forcing himself to accept it like the
unavoidable discomfort of hail or rain; nay, it cost him an effort to
conceal his joyful emotion when, toward sunrise, the young warders sent
in pursuit returned with tangled hair, panting for breath, and bringing
nothing save one of the dogs with a broken skull.

The only thing left for the captain of the guards to do was to report
what had occurred at the first fortress on the Etham border, which the
prisoners were obliged in any case to pass, and toward this they were now
driven.

Since Ephraim's flight a new and more cruel spirit had taken possession
of the warders. While yesterday they had permitted the unfortunate men to
move forward at an easy pace, they now forced them to the utmost possible
speed. Besides, the atmosphere was sultry, and the scorching sun
struggled with the thunderclouds gathering in heavy masses at the north.

Joshua's frame, inured to fatigues of every kind, resisted the tortures
of this hurried march; but his weaker companion, who had grown grey in a
scribe's duties, often gave way and at last lay prostrate beside him.

The captain was obliged to have the hapless man placed on an ass and
chain another prisoner to Joshua. He was his former yoke-mate's brother,
an inspector of the king's stables, a stalwart Egyptian, condemned to the
mines solely on account of the unfortunate circumstance of being the
nearest blood relative of a state criminal.

It was easier to walk with this vigorous companion, and