The absence of noisy mourners, and the unusual hour of night, were plausibly accounted for by the dreaded disease that Grim had invented for the occasion.

My golf-suit was the only false note, but I kept in shadow as much as I could, with the unseemly burden between me and the ramparts.
It was a long time before we had the town wall at our backs.

A funeral, in the circumstances, might justifiably be rapid; but we could hardly run and keep up the pretense.

But at last we passed over the shoulder of a hill into shadow on the farther side, and there was no more need of play-acting.
"Yalla bilagel!" [Run like the devil.] Grim ordered then, and we obeyed him like sprinters attempting to lower a record.
Twelve men running through the night can make a lot of noise, especially when they carry a heavy man between them.

Our men were all from Hebron.