"Go to, thou prater!" interrupted a companion. "If thou lovest Bedouin warfare so well, wherefore dost thou join thyself to the Israelite who fights not at all?"
"Spoil!" retorted the first, "and new fields, O waster of the air!
Hast thou not heard of Canaan?"
"Nay," shouted a third, "he hath an eye only to some heifer-eyed brickmaker among them!"
The soldier moved forward to the group and grounded his pike. His attitude interested them, and in the expectant silence he repeated the writing on the tablet.
"So saith the writing," the first speaker began, but the warrior interrupted him.
"It behooves thee to obey. Thou art yet within the reach of the awkward arms of Egypt."
"One against a troop of Bedouins," the trifler laughed.
"And there are a thousand within sound of my beaten shield," was the harsh answer.
"Come," said an elder complacently, "it does no harm to ask the alleviation of any man's hurt, and it may keep us whole for the journey into Canaan." He dismounted, and in a twinkling the company, even to the babes, had followed his example. Each dropped to his haunches, his hands spread upon his knees, and there was no sound for a few minutes.
Then they rose simultaneously and, flinging themselves upon their horses, departed as they came, like the whirlwind, over the road to Pa-Ramesu and the heart of Goshen.