The two men embraced; the warrior imperturbably, the attendant tearfully.
"What dost thou away from Goshen?" Joshua asked, disengaging himself. "The faithful of Israel have been summoned thither from the remotenesses of Mizraim."
But Caleb did not hear, having caught sight of the Egyptian. The recognition startled him as it had all the others, but he did not hold his peace.
"Atsu!" he exclaimed. Joshua checked him.
"Vex him not with attention," he said in a lowered tone. "His fall hath been great, but it hath not killed his pride. He would speak if it hurt him to be unremembered."
"Hath he a grudge against us?" Caleb asked in astonishment.
"Nay, look thou at the writing on the tablet. He would hide its command from us. Is he not a friend to Israel still?"
He indicated the characters on either side of the soldier. The words were disconnected, but the sense was easily guessed. The command for prayers to the Pantheon of Egypt was not hidden, beyond conjecture, from the discerning. Caleb saw the meaning of the inscription, but looked to Joshua for further enlightenment.
"He would spare us," the abler Israelite said. "Let us return the kindness and see him not."
All this had the Egyptian heard, but his eyes, fixed so absently on the horizon, seemed to indicate that he was not conscious of his surroundings.