Curiosity to know what brought her out into danger at night impelled him to follow near enough to protect her, but unsuspected until she had revealed her mission to him.
A hungry dog, probably the last one to escape the execution which had been meted out to all useless consumers of food, barked at her heels and brought her up sharply.
The beast in his siege of her circled in the dark around near enough to the Maccabee hidden in the darkness for him to deliver a vindictive kick in the staring ribs of the brute.

When the howl of the surprised dog faded up the black ravine, Laodice ran on.

The Maccabee, silently pursuing, heard with a contracting heart that she was crying softly from terror and bewilderment.

Not yet, however, had she approached the danger of Jerusalem, which John had kept far removed from the precincts of Amaryllis' house.
She was entering Akra.

The heap of grain, yet burning, showed a dull black-red mound over which towered a column of strong incense.