Page:The Dial (Volume 75).djvu/88

66 (Exit Probus. A pause. Paul starts to his feet.)

I must speak with him.

(Exit Paul hurriedly.)

Who now believes the shepherd’s story?


 * None was pledged to belief or unbelief. Paul will tell us—


 * Ye have seen how weary he is.


 * But he cannot go on to Rome leaving us in doubt.


 * In doubt! In doubt! Ye have heard him foretell his death in Spain, and still ye doubt! Hearken! He returns Not a word!


 * But we must hear the truth from him.

(Enter Paul. He goes to Timothy.)


 * So, my beloved son, after losing each other in the rocks thou wert able to find thy way through twenty leagues of hills. How long did the journey take thee?


 * Two days.

(to Eunice): Thou couldst hardly have known thy son after so hard a journey.


 * After a few hours' rest I sent him forth to the hills again to seek thee.


 * Timothy outwalks me, great traveller though I be; yet to send him forth again after a long journey seems— But I'll not reprove anybody to-night. We are here united belike for the last time, mayhap never to see each other's faces again. (To disguise his emotion.) So, Timothy, after a few hours' sleep thou wert sent out on the hills to search for me?


 * To get no news of thee from the shepherds till I met one coming from Kerith who said he had seen thee, or one like thee, with Jesus of Nazareth.


 * And what said he of him?


 * That he was a man of abrupt speech and seldom, yet with a kindly smile when he was met on the hills.


 * We seem to have spoken but once whilst on our journey.


 * After losing Timothy thou camest upon a shepherd?


 * No. But it is a long story, and I know not how to tell it all.


 * A few words—when and where?


 * One moment Timothy was by me, the next he was gone, and I wandered calling in the darkness, finding myself suddenly