The stars were growing pale, though morning was still far off, when the deep silence of the village was broken by the sound of feet running lightly, cautiously, up the lane.
Nearer and nearer came the footsteps until they halted before the door of Samuel's house, and a little figure, panting and breathless, stepped quickly within.
Naomi sat upright and peered sleepily through the gloom.
"Ezra, is it thou?" she asked in surprise. "Is it morning yet? What brings thee here?"
"I have news, Naomi, bad news, I fear," the boy answered. "I must waken my father and mother. Whatever is done must be done quickly. There is no time to lose."
"I hear thee, son," said Samuel's voice unexpectedly. "What is thy tale?"
"And my mother?" questioned Ezra. "It concerns Jonas."
"I sleep not," said Jonas's mother, broad awake in an instant, and drawing the drowsy little ball into her arms in swift alarm. "Tell thy story quickly."
"As ye know," began the boy hurriedly, "I went down to the Fields of David at sunset to spend the night with shepherd Eli. And as I passed through the gate old Nathan hailed me. He told me that one of the shepherds had borrowed his warm cloak and had not yet returned it, and that he was now full of aches and pains and sorrows because of the lack of it. He charged me straitly to tell the shepherd to return it at once or he would have him haled before the magistrate at daybreak, and that he would not cease his watch for it nor sleep that night until the cloak was round his shoulders once again.