THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

making it near suicide to be outdoors during daylight. Slipping from shelter to shelter, they finally arrived at the building that backs onto the dividing wall between Arab and Jewish Jerusalem, and there interviewed a person by the name of George Isaiah. It became clear from the beginning that he was not going to be very helpful, and, although he did not deny that the Monastery had organized an excavation of the cave, he refused point-blank to disclose its whereabouts. Saad argued, cajoled, and bullied, but all to no effect. He was just about to give up hope of gaining any useful information at all when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the Syrian fathers approaching, a venerable saint called Father Yusif. When the old man had drawn quite near, Saad suddenly turned from George and asked Yusif what he knew about the cave. Before George could stop him, the old man began to describe the excavations and their location. George turned on him fiercely but could not silence him before he had given at least a general idea of the cave's position. It seemed that it was somewhere south of the junction of the roads to Jericho and the Dead Sea, among the cliffs that border the Sea to the west. Now, those limestone cliffs are honeycombed with caves and clefts in the rock, and the mountains rise nearly a thousand feet from the marly plateau. With a southern limit at Ras Feshkha about six miles to the south, a good deal more detailed pin-pointing was going to be necessary for the cave to be discovered (see map on p. 11). As Saad and his companion retraced their steps through the Old City, they discussed the next move. It seemed obvious that they would have to try the great standby of the East: bribery. Most things out there have their price, and it only remained to find out how high it was going to be. So on their return, negotiations with George Isaiah were opened on the general principle that if he would lead a party to the cave, he would receive a cash payment, and the custody of any further scrolls found would be equally shared between them. These negotiations took a considerable time, involving many trips to the Monastery through gunfire. Finally, when it