So Forder climbed up the mountain track till he came out on the high plain.  He saw the desert in front of him—­like a vast rolling ocean of glowing gold it stretched away and away for close on a thousand miles eastward to the Persian Gulf.  Forder knew that only here and there in all those blazing, sandy wastes were oases where men could build their houses round some well or little stream that soon lost itself in the sand.  All the rest was desert across which man and beast must hurry or die of thirst.  He must follow the camel-tracks from oasis to oasis, where they could find a well of water, therefore drink for man and camel, and date-palms.

So turning north he pressed on[67] till on the sixth day out from Jerusalem the clouds came up with the dawn, and hail and rain, carried by a biting east wind, beat down upon him.  Lifting his eyes to the horizon he saw ahead the sturdy castle and thick walls of the ancient city of Bosra.  Stumbling through the storm, along the narrow winding streets, he met, to his disgust, a man whose dress showed that he was a Turkish Government official.  He knew that the Turkish Government would be against a Christian and a foreigner going into their land.

“Who are you?” asked the official, stopping him.  “Where are you from?  Where are you going?”

Forder told him, and the man said.  “Come with me.  I will find you and your horses shelter at the Governor’s house.”  Forder followed him into a large room in the middle of which on the floor a fire was burning.

“I must examine all your cases,” said the official.  “Get up.  Open your boxes.”

“Never,” said Forder.  “This is not a custom-house.”

“Your boxes are full of powder for arming the Arabs against the Turkish Government,” replied the official.

“I will not open them,” said Forder, “unless you bring me written orders from the Turkish Governor in Damascus and from the British Consul.”

Off went the official to consult the headman (the equivalent of the Mayor) of the city.  The headman came and asked many questions.  At last he said: 

“Well, my orders are to turn back all Europeans and not to let any stay in these parts.  However, as you seem to be almost an Arab, may God go with you and give you peace.”

So Forder and the headman of the ancient city of Bosra got talking together.  Forder opened his satchel and drew out an Arabic New Testament, and together they read parts of the story of the life of Jesus Christ and talked about Him till ten o’clock at night.  As the headman rose to go to his own rooms Forder offered to him, and he gladly took, the copy of the New Testament in Arabic to read for himself.

Saved by the Mist

Next morning early, Forder had his horses loaded and started off with his face to the dawn.  The track now led toward the great Castle of Sulkhund, which he saw looming up on the horizon twenty-five miles away, against the dull sky.  But mist came down; wind, rain, and hail buffeted him; the horses, to escape the hail in their faces, turned aside, and the trail was lost.  Mist hid everything.  Forder’s compass showed that he was going south; so he turned east again; but he could not strike the narrow, broken, stony trail.