midday
As soon as his master was in the saddle , he shook his accoutrements and sprang forward at the head of the cavalcade , Joseph crying back : he must have the sound of hoofs behind him . He could refuse his horse nothing , and suffered him to canter some few hundred yards up the road , though it was not customary to leave the escort behind , and when Joseph returned , the foreman told him , as he expected he would , that it would be well not to tire his horse by galloping him at the beginning of the journey , for a matter of thirty miles lay in front of them . Thirty miles the first day , he said , and fifty the second day ; for by this division he would leave twenty-five miles for the third day ; and Joseph learnt that the captain had arranged the journey in this wise for the sake of the inns , for though they would meet an inn every twenty miles , there were but three good inns between Jerusalem and Tiberias . He had arranged too with a view to the rest at midday . Our way lies , he said , through the large shallow valley , and that is why I started at six . It is about four hours hence , so we shall be through it well before noon . But why must we pass through it before noon ?