At his second step he faltered. Silence dropped upon the blazing plain of Damascus--silence so sudden, so absolute that his footfall startled him. He saw that the movement of Saul's party had been arrested. Arm lifted, or foot put forward, stayed in the attitude. The utter stillness seized them as a commanding hand. Then all the noon grew dim, not from the abatement of the sun's light, but by the coming of a radiance infinitely brighter. Descending from above, instantly intensifying as if the source that shed it approached as fast as stars move, a single ray, purer than the glitter on Mount Hermon, and more inscrutable than the face of the Syrian sun, stood among them. Its presence was not violent but all-compelling. The group at the pool fell down in the dust and lay still. Silence such as never before and never again lay on the plain of Damascus, brooded about them. Out of it a single voice issued, low, trembling, filled with fear and reverence. It was Saul of Tarsus, speaking: "Who art Thou, Lord?" Presently he spoke again, eagerly, humbly, and still afraid: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" [Illustration: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" (missing from book)] After a long time, the hot breeze made a whispering sound in the sand of the roadway; the leaves in the hedge at hand stirred and fluttered. Joel, the boldest of the Levites, cautiously raised his head, and presently got upon his feet. His fellows, taking heart, rose, one by one. A young stranger in the robes of an Essene was kneeling among them with large dark eyes fixed in pity upon Saul. The rabbi had made an attempt to raise himself, but had paused transfixed. Humility made an actual light on his forehead; his pinched features were stunned with helplessness. The terrified Levites crept closer to one another, but Joel finally wet his dry lips and spoke in a half-whisper: "Rabbi?" There was no answer in words, but slow tears rose, brimmed over the lids and crept down the sun-burned hollow cheeks. The young stranger came quickly and knelt beside the rabbi and laid a kindly hand on his shoulder. "Brother Saul?" he whispered. The face of the rabbi came round, but the gaze missed its mark and wandered over the men about him. There was no vision in the eyes. "He is blind!" a Levite whispered. The young stranger slipped the hand from the shoulder around the bowed figure, and, supporting Saul in his arm, looked down with infinite sorrow and concern at the darkened eyes. "We will abide here," he said at last, to the Levites, "until the noon passeth." The Levites looked in a little fear at the spot where they had been so mysteriously overwhelmed, but Marsyas lifted Saul and bore him back into the shade he had left to continue unto Damascus.