we must trust to what we can get out there, but I
think that I may as well take my saddles. About leave;
I can give you both forty-eight hours starting from
to-night, terminating on Wednesday.9 He spoke
softly as always, not raising his voice, but under its
gentle monotony there vibrated a note of intense
excitement.
Christophe thought: 'Judea . . .' And even as he
did so there came upon him the curious feeling that
this name, like the name Galilee, meant home; meant
a place very far away from Provence yet towards
which his footsteps had long been turned. But the
ColonePs eyes were now fixed on his face:
'You have understood me?5
*Oui, mon Colonel, I have understood.5 And
Christophe saluted.
Jan was thinking: 'Palestine, our Lord's own
country, the Holy Land of the old Crusaders. To fight
there; if need be to die there for Christ, to lay down
one's life on that blessed soil. Oh, my God, I do
indeed thank Thee for this . . .' Aloud he said: clf
mon Colonel will tell me what baggage he is proposing
to take?'
'I was just going to speak of my kit;3 replied
Prevost.
§5
That night they travelled back to Saint Loup,
getting there in the dusk of early morning while the
windows of the town were still shuttered in sleep.
Then they parted and went to their separate homes.
No one had been on the station platform to meet
them, for no one had known of their coming.
Yet Marie stood at her open doorway: 'You have
come, you are here, all night I have waited . . . this
means?'
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