Then Joshua opened his heart to the man of God and told him the questions he had asked himself during the past sleepless night, and to which he had found no answer.  The latter listened quietly, and in deep, faltering tones answered in broken sentences: 

“The lawlessness in the camp—­ay, it is ruining the people!  But the Lord placed the power to destroy it in our hands.  Woe betide him who resists.  They must feel this power, which is as sublime as yonder mountain, as immovable as its solid rock.”

Then Moses’ wrathful words ceased.

After both had gazed silently into vacancy a long time, Joshua broke the silence by asking: 

“And what is the name of this power?”

Loudly and firmly from the bearded lips of the man of God rang the words;

“The law!”

He pointed with his staff to the summit of the mountain.

Then, waving his hand to his companion, he left him.  Joshua completed his search for the foe and saw on the yellow sands of the valley dark figures moving to and fro.

They were the remnants of the defeated Amalekite bands seeking new abodes.

He watched them a short time and, after convincing himself that they were quitting the oasis, he thoughtfully returned to the valley.

“The law!” he repeated again and again.

Ay, that was what the wandering tribes lacked.  It was doubtless reserved for its severity to transform the hordes which had escaped bondage into a people worthy of the God who preferred them above the other nations of the earth.

Here the chief’s reflections were interrupted; for human voices, the lowing and bleating of herds, the barking of dogs, and the heavy blows of hammers rose to his ears from the oasis.

They were pitching the tents, a work of peace, for which no one needed him.

Lying down in the shadow of a thick tamarisk bush, above which a tall palm towered proudly, he stretched his limbs comfortably to rest in the assurance that the people were now provided for, in war by his good sword, in peace by the Law.  This was much, it renewed his hopes; yet, no, no—­it was not all, could not be the final goal.  The longer he reflected, the more profoundly he felt that this was not enough to satisfy him concerning those below, whom he cherished in his heart as if they were brothers and sisters.  His broad brow again clouded, and roused from his repose by fresh doubts, he gently shook his head.

No, again no!  The Law could not afford to those who were so dear to him everything that he desired for them.  Something else was needed to make their future as dignified and beautiful as he had beheld it before his mind’s eye on his journey to the mines.

But what was it, what name did this other need bear?

He began to rack his brain to discover it, and while, with closed lids, he permitted his thoughts to rove to the other nations whom he had known in war and peace, in order to seek among them the one thing his own people lacked, sleep overpowered him and a dream showed him Miriam and a lovely girl, who looked like Kasana as she had so often rushed to meet him when a sweet, innocent child, followed by the white lamb which Nun had given to his favorite many years before.