“And so do I,” replied Hosea.  “No one save the God through whom Miriam summoned me to this spot, entrusted me—­of that I am confident—­with the important message which brings me here.  I must find Moses ere it is too late.”

“You have already heard that he will be beyond the reach of any one, myself included, until to-morrow, perhaps the day after.  Will you speak to Aaron?”

“Is he in the camp?”

“No; but we expect his return before the departure of the people, that is in a few hours.”

“Has he the power to decide important matters in Moses’ absence?”

“No, he merely announces to the people in eloquent language what his illustrious brother commands.”

The warrior bent his eyes with a disappointed expression on the ground, and after a brief pause for reflection eagerly added, fixing his gaze on Miriam: 

“It is Moses to whom the Lord our God announces his will; but to you, his august maiden sister, the Most High also reveals himself, to you . . .”

“Oh, Hosea!” interrupted the prophetess, extending her hands toward him with a gesture of mingled entreaty and warning; but the chief, instead of heeding her monition, went on: 

“The Lord our God hath commanded you to summon me, His servant, back to the people; He hath commanded you to give me the name for which I am to exchange the one my father and mother bestowed upon me, and which I have borne in honor for thirty years.  Obedient to your summons, I have cast aside all that could make me great among men; but on my way through Egypt,—­bearing in my heart the image of my God and of you,—­braving death, the message I now have to deliver was entrusted to me, and I believe that it came from the Most High Himself.  It is my duty to convey it to the leaders of the people; but as I am unable to find Moses, I can confide it to no better one than you who, though only a woman, stand,—­ next to your brother—­nearest to the Most High, so I implore you to listen to me.  The tidings I bring are not yet ripe for the ears of a third person.”

Hur drew his figure to a still greater height and, interrupting Hosea, asked Miriam whether she desired to hear the son of Nun without witnesses; she answered with a quiet “yes.”

Then Hur turned haughtily and coldly to the warrior: 

“I think that Miriam knows the Lord’s will, as well as her brother’s, and is aware of what beseems the women of Israel.  If I am not mistaken, it was under this tree that your own father, the worthy Nun, gave to my son Uri the sole answer which Moses must also make to every bearer of a message akin to yours.”

“Do you know it?” asked Hosea in a tone of curt reproof.

“No,” replied the other, “but I suspect its purport, and look here.”

While speaking he stooped with youthful agility and, raising two large stones with his powerful arms, propped them against each other, rolled several smaller ones to their sides, and then, with panting breath, exclaimed: