Jesus was afraid that Paul’s vehemence would carry him on into another fit like the one that he had just come out of, and he was glad to meet a shepherd, who passed his water-bottle to Paul.  Fill thy bottle from mine, the shepherd said to Jesus, and there is half-a-loaf of bread in my wallet which I’d like thee to have to share with thy traveller in the morning, else he will not be able to begin the journey again.  Nay, do not fear to take it, he said, my wife’ll have prepared supper for me.  Jesus took the bread and bade his mate farewell.  There is a cave, Paul, Jesus said, in yonder valley which we can make safe against wolves and panthers.  Lean on my arm.  Thy head is still a trouble; drink a little more water.  See, the shepherd has given me half-a-loaf, which we will share in the morning.  Come, the cave is not far:  in yon valley.  Paul raised his eyes, and they reasoned with vague, pathetic appeal, for at that moment Jesus was the stronger.  Since it must be so, I’ll try, he said, and he tottered, leaning heavily on Jesus for what seemed to him a long way and then stopped.  I can go no farther; thou wouldst do well to leave me to the hyenas.  Go thy way.  But Jesus continued to encourage him, saying that the cave in which they were to rest was at the end of the valley, and when Paul asked how many yards distant, he did not answer the exact distance, but halved it, so that Paul might be heartened and encouraged, and when the distance mentioned had been traversed and the cave was still far away he bore with Paul’s reproaches and answered them with kindly voice:  we shall soon be there, another few steps will bring us into it, and it isn’t a long valley; only a gutter, Paul answered, the way the rains have worn through the centuries.  A strange desert, the strangest we have seen yet, and I have travelled a thousand leagues but never seen one so melancholy.  I like better the great desert.  I have lived all my life among these hills, Jesus replied, and to my eyes they have lost their melancholy.

All thy life in these deserts, Paul replied eagerly, and his manner softened and became almost winning.  Thou’lt forgive, he said, any abruptness there may have been in my speech, I am speaking differently from my wont, but to-morrow I shall be in health and able to follow thee and to listen with interest to thy tales of shepherding among these hills of which thou must know a goodly number.  My speech is improving, isn’t it? answer me.  Jesus answered that he understood Paul very well; and could tell him many stories of flocks, pillaging by robbers and fights between brave Thracian dogs and wolves, and if such stories interested Paul he could relate them.  But here is our cave, he said, pointing to a passage between the rocks.  We must go down on our hands and knees to enter it; and in answer to Paul, who was anxious to know the depth of the cave, Jesus averred that he only knew the cave through having once looked into it.  The caves we know best are the vast caves