“And will He not grant it?” fumed the schoolmaster, forcing on his unwilling companion. But while he spoke he felt Isaiah totter on his feet. By the light of the copper lamp he carried, Dagan saw the Jew’s face turn very pale. “Friend,” Isaiah spoke hoarsely, “do not mock me if you wish to live.” “By Ramman!” swore the Babylonian, not a little fearful, “I think you are in earnest.” He pushed in the door of a little sleeping chamber, and waved the lamp, sending a wan flicker around, that now hid, now revealed, all the room. “Behold!” Dagan pointed downward, where a mattress was spread upon the floor and on it the form of one sleeping. And as they looked, there was a rustle upon the pallet, two little hands unclasped across the breast, while Dagan saw that again the Hebrew was trembling. “Dagan,” commanded Isaiah, still hoarsely, “set the light upon the floor and get you hence.” Which injunction, the schoolmaster, being a wise as well as a kindly man, hastened to obey. * * * * * “Shaphat,” said Isaiah, later that same night, in another chamber of the house, “tell me the story of your flight with the Lady Ruth, for I would not suffer her to speak long, but bade her go back to rest.” Whereupon a young man, who had been dozing in a dark corner, shuffled to his feet; but he would not look Isaiah in the eye. “Ah, lord,” stammered the fellow, “who I am to tell my master,—I on whose head rests untold guilt? Who will believe, though I swear by every god? Even these Babylonians, if they know me, will cry ‘bricks for the perjurer,’ and will pelt me in their streets.” “And well you say,” muttered Dagan, who stood by,—“the servant who robbed so kind a lord as Daniel, then conspired with that viper Gudea to work his death. By Marduk!” and he turned to Isaiah, “I will not trust him; no, not till cockcrow! If he has saved the Lady Ruth, it is but to serve some dark and hidden end. He knows your secret. Let him never quit this house alive!” The renegado cowered at Isaiah’s feet. “Woe!” he groaned, “I am undone utterly; accursed on earth, and accursed in heaven! If such is the wrath of man, what is not God and His just and holy anger?” But Isaiah deliberately stooped and raised the wretched man by the hand. “Peace, Dagan,” he commanded, and then he looked sadly but calmly upon the apostate. “Shaphat,” his voice was very gentle, “I have but just stood beside Daniel, the most righteous man in all Babylon. He is in chains in a noisome dungeon. If God suffers him to undergo this, what punishment is left for such as you to endure, were we all rewarded after our ill-doings? But were He to remember all the foul deeds in even the most righteous, who of us shall stand? Rise up, and speak with boldness. You are rewarded, not of man, but of God. _I_ will hear and believe your story.”