Part 39 (1/2)

”Why,” Simon asked calmly, ”what has detained you, Isaac?”

”A strange thing has happened,” the old man said. ”One of our wanderers has returned--not he whom we have hoped and prayed for most--but Jonas. He has been a slave, but has escaped, and come back to us.”

”And what is his news?” Simon asked, rising to his feet; but even more imperative was the unspoken question on Mary's white face, and parted lips.

”He gives us hope,” Isaac said to her. ”So far as he knows, John may yet be alive.”

”I knew it, I knew it!” Mary said, in a voice scarcely above a whisper.

”O Lord, I thank thee. Why have I doubted Thy mercy?”

And she stood, for a moment, with head thrown back and eyes upraised; then she swayed suddenly, and would have fallen, had not Isaac run forward and supported her until, at Martha's cry, two of the maids hastened up and placed her on a seat.

Some water was held to her lips. She drank a little, and then said, faintly, ”Tell us more, Isaac.”

”I have not much more to tell,” he replied. ”Jonas says that John certainly did not fall in Jerusalem--as, indeed, we were told by the young man of his band who returned--and that he believes that, like himself, he was sold as a slave.

”But Jonas is outside. I thought it better to tell you, first. Now, I will call him in to speak for himself.”

When Jonas entered, Martha and Mary were clasped in each other's arms. Miriam, with the tears streaming down her cheeks, was repeating aloud one of the Psalms of thanksgiving; while Simon stood with head bent low, and his hands grasping the table, upon which the tears were raining down in heavy drops.

It was some little time before they could question Jonas further.

Martha and Mary had embraced him as if he had been the son of one, the brother of the other. Simon solemnly blessed him, and welcomed him as one from the dead. Then they gathered round to hear his story.

”John and I both escaped all the dangers of the siege,” he said.

”We were wounded several times, but never seriously. G.o.d seemed to watch over us; and although at the last, of the six hundred men with which we entered Jerusalem there were but twelve who remained alive, we were among them.”

”Yes, yes, we knew that,” Martha said. ”News was brought by a young man of his band, who belonged to a village on the lake, that twelve of you had escaped together on the day the Temple fell. The others all returned to their homes, but no news ever came of you; and they said that some party of Romans must have killed you--what else could have befallen you? And now we are in February--nearly six months have pa.s.sed--and no word of you!”

”We were carried off as slaves,” Jonas said, ”and taken, like Joseph, to be sold in Egypt.”

”And have you seen him, since?” Simon asked.

”Yes, I saw him in Egypt.”

”And he was well then?”

”Quite well,” Jonas replied. ”I was sent to Rome, and thence managed to make my way back by s.h.i.+p.”

”We must purchase him back,” Simon said. ”Surely that must be possible! I have money, still. I will make the journey, myself, and buy him.”

And he rose to his feet, as if to start at once.

”Well, not now,” he went on, in answer to the hand which Martha laid on his shoulder, ”but tomorrow.”

While he was speaking, Mary had touched Jonas, gazing into his face with the same eager question her eyes had asked Isaac. The thought that Jonas was not alone had flashed across her. He nodded slightly, and looked towards the door. In a moment she was gone.

”John!” she cried, as she ran out of the house; at first in a low tone, but louder and louder as she ran on. ”John! John! Where are you?”

A figure stepped out from among the trees, and Mary fell into his arms. A few minutes later, she re-entered the room.