All the
energies and aims of his youth seemed to resolve into one grim and
inexorable purpose.
It was far into the second watch when he left Pa-Ramesu. But the great
city of tents was not yet sleeping.
The horse was anxious for a journey after a fortnight of idleness and
he bade fair to keep pace with his rider's impatience. The Arabian
hills had sunk below the sky-line and the Libyan desert was not marked
by any eminence. With Pa-Ramesu behind him, a wide unbroken horizon
belted the dusky landscape. The lights winked out over Goshen and the
hamlets were not visible except as Kenkenes came upon them. The
shepherd dogs barked afar off, or now and then a wakened bird cheeped
drowsily, or the waters in the canals rippled over a pebbly space.
But these sounds ceased unaccountably, at last, and a silence settled
down till the atmosphere was tense with stillness. A deadening hand
seemed to cover the night.
The silence roused Kenkenes and he realized the solemnity of the earth,
the vastness of the sky and the majesty of the solitude. Mysteriously
affected, he withdrew within himself and humbly acknowledged the One
God.
At midnight a chill struck the breeze and he drew his mantle about him
while he rode.
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