CHAPTER II.
It was Ben-Hur's purpose to turn aside at the break of day, and find a safe place in which to rest; but the dawn overtook him while out in the Desert, and he kept on, the guide promising to bring him afterwhile to a vale shut in by great rocks, where there were a spring, some mulberry-trees, and herbage in plenty for the horses.
As he rode thinking of the wondrous events so soon to happen, and of the changes they were to bring about in the affairs of men and nations, the guide, ever on the alert, called attention to an appearance of strangers behind them.

Everywhere around the Desert stretched away in waves of sand, slowly yellowing in the growing light, and without any green thing visible.

Over on the left, but still far off, a range of low mountains extended, apparently interminable.

In the vacancy of such a waste an object in motion could not long continue a mystery.
"It is a camel with riders," the guide said, directly.
"Are there others behind ?" said Ben-Hur.
"It is alone.

No, there is a man on horseback--the driver, probably." A little later Ben-Hur himself could see the camel was white and unusually large, reminding him of the wonderful animal he had seen bring Balthasar and Iras to the fountain in the Grove of Daphne.