“Greeting, bearer of many arms!” he said, and then addressed a near-by companion as if he were rods away.  “Behold leaden-toed Egypt, cumbered with defense!  Bull-hide for shield instead of the safe remoteness of distance, blade and pike for vulgar intimacy in combat instead of the nice aloofness of the launched spear—­”

“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.

These were part of the mixed multitude that went with Israel.

The dust of their going had hardly settled before a drove of hosannahing Israelites approached from the direction of the Nile.  The soldier saw them without seeming to see and, moving toward the tablet, a four-foot stela of sandstone, planted himself against its inscribed face, and, resting his pike, contemplated the west.

The ragged rout approached, singing and shouting, noisy and of doubtful temper.  A cloud of dust came with them and the odor of stall and of quarry sweat.

Want plays havoc with the Oriental’s appearance.  It acutely accentuates his already aggressive features and reduces his color to ghastliness.  The approaching Hebrews were studies of sharp angularity in monochrome, and the soul which showed in the eyes was no longer a spiritual but a ravenous thing.

Being something distinctly Egyptian, the soldier brought their actual temper to the surface.  They had suffered long, but their time had come.

The foremost flung themselves into his view and halted, hushed and amazed.  When those behind them tried to press forward with jeers, they turned with a frown and a significant jerk of the head in the direction of the man-at-arms.  These, also, subsided and passed along the sign of silence.  A leader in the front rank walked away and took a drink, using his hands as a cup.  The whole silent herd followed and did likewise, solemnly and thoughtfully.