But Julian had another idea than pressing his vengeful advantage at
that time. He went out into Emmaus and engaging the unemployed of the
thriftless town sent them broadcast into the hills in search of a
pagan who was young, yet gray at the temples.
Some of them went--and they were chiefly boys who were not old enough
to know that these strangers who come in pagan guise to Emmaus are
full of guile. But none returned to him. They had neither seen nor
heard of a pagan who was young though the white hair of an old man
snowed on his temples.
So Julian storming within went out into the hills himself, to search.
Meanwhile the Maccabee, a light sleeper and readily restored, awoke
and found himself alone. The khan-keeper informed him on inquiry that
Julian had ridden away.
"Too fair a hope to think that he has deserted me," the Maccabee
observed. "I shall await him a decent time. He will return."
He tramped about the chamber waiting for something that was not
Julian, intending to do something but unable to define that thing.
There was a vague admission that this last pause before his entry into
Jerusalem where he must accomplish so much was an opportunity for some
sort of preparation, but he lacked direction and resource. He was
irritable and purposeless.
Out of the low door that opened into the lewen of the khan he caught
glimpses of the town spread over the tilt of the hill before him.
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