I am not tired." They turned away to help the slave.
There was little conversation between the three at the stopping-place for the night west of Ramoth-Gilead.
"Let us arise early, son of Hur," said the old man.

"The Saviour may come, and we not there." "The King cannot be far behind his herald," Iras whispered, as she prepared to take her place on the camel.
"To-morrow we will see!" Ben-Hur replied, kissing her hand.
Next day about the third hour, out of the pass through which, skirting the base of Mount Gilead, they had journeyed since leaving Ramoth, the party came upon the barren steppe east of the sacred river.

Opposite them they saw the upper limit of the old palm lands of Jericho, stretching off to the hill-country of Judea.

Ben-Hur's blood ran quickly, for he knew the ford was close at hand.
"Content you, good Balthasar," he said; "we are almost there." The driver quickened the camel's pace.

Soon they caught sight of booths and tents and tethered animals; and then of the river, and a multitude collected down close by the bank, and yet another multitude on the western shore.