Behind them only one camel rocked along in their wake.

The other and its driver had disappeared.
"Deserted!" Aquila exclaimed under his breath.
"Three!" the woman said.
"A pest on your counting for a Charon's toll-taker!" Aquila whispered savagely.

"We will have no more of it!" "No ?" the woman said with a meaning that made the pagan shiver.
Momus laid goad about his camel.
The way continually ascended toward the east; the soil was no longer sandy, but rocky; no longer given up to desolate gardens, but black with groves of cedars and highland shrubs.

They swung off a plateau that would have ended in a cliff, down a shaly sheep-path into a wady.
Under the moonlight, the bottom was seen to be scarred with marks of hoof and wheel.

It debouched suddenly into a Roman road, straight, level, magnificently built and running as a bird flies on to Jerusalem.
The camel's gait increased.