And it was then that a disciple poked himiself up to Jesus to ask him if they were not to believe the Scriptures.  He answered him that the Scriptures were no more than the love of God.  This answer did not quell the dissidents, but caused them to murmur more loudly against him, and Jesus, though he must have seen that he was about to lose some disciples, would retract nothing.  The Scriptures are, he repeated, but the love of God.  He that came to betray him said:  and the Gentiles that haven’t the Scriptures?  Jesus answered that all men that have the love of God in their hearts are beloved by God.  Is it then of no value to come of the stock of Abraham? the man asked, and Jesus replied:  none, but a loss if ye do not love God, for God asks more from those whose minds he has opened than from those whose minds he has suffered to remain shut.  At which Peter cried:  though there be not a pint of wine in all heaven we will follow thee, and though there be no fish in heaven but the scaleless that the Gentiles eat——­ He stopped suddenly and looked at Jesus, saying:  there are no Gentiles in heaven.  Heaven is open to all men that love God, Jesus said, and after these words he continued to look at Peter, but like one that sees things that are not before him; and the residue followed him over the hills, saying to themselves:  he is thinking about this journey to Jerusalem, and then a little later one said to the others:  he is in commune with the spirits that lead him, asking them to spare him this journey, for he knows that the Pharisees will rise up against him, and will stone him if he preach against the Temple.  What else should he preach against? asked another disciple; and they continued to watch Jesus, trying to gather from his face what his thoughts might be, thinking that his distant eyes might be seeking a prediction of the coming kingdom in the sky.  We might ask him if he sees the kingdom coming this way, an apostle whispered in the ear of another, and was forthwith silenced, for it was deemed important that the Master should never be disturbed in his meditations, whatever they might be.

He stood at gaze, his apostles and his disciples watching from a little distance, recalling the day his dog Coran refused to follow him, and seeing that the dog had something on his mind, he left his flock in charge of the other dogs and followed Coran to the hills above the Brook Kerith, down a little crumbling path to Elijah’s cave.  He found John the Baptist, and recognising in him Elijah’s inheritor—­at that moment a flutter of wings in the branches awoke him from his reverie, and seeing his disciples about him, he asked them whose inheritor he was.  Some said Elijah, some said Jeremiah, some said Moses.  As if dissatisfied with these answers, he looked into their faces, as if he would read their souls, and asked them to look up through the tree tops and tell him what they could see in a certain space of sky.  In fear of his mood, and lest he might call them feeble