gathered.

The Egyptian garrison in the fortified store-house had not failed to
notice that the Hebrews were under some special excitement, but they
supposed it due to the harvest festival. The commander of the garrison
had learned that Moses desired to lead his people into the wilderness to
offer sacrifices to their God, and had asked for a reinforcement. But he
knew nothing more; for until the morning when the desert wind blew, no
Hebrew had disclosed the plans of his kindred. But the more sorely the
heat of the day oppressed them, the greater became the dread of the
faint-hearted of the pilgrimage through the hot, dusty, waterless desert.
The terrible day had given them a foretaste of what was impending and
when, toward noon, the dust grew thicker, the air more and more
oppressive, a Hebrew trader, from whom the Egyptian soldiers purchased
goods, stole into the store-house to ask the commander to prevent his
people from rushing to their doom.

Even among the leaders the voices of malcontents had grown loud. Asarja
and Michael, with their sons, who grudged the power of Moses and Aaron,
had even gone from one to another to try to persuade them, ere departing,
to summon the elders again and charge then to enter into fresh
negotiations with the Egyptians. While these malcontents were
successfully gathering adherents, and the traitor had sought the
commander of the Egyptian garrison, two more messengers arrived with
tidings that the fugitives would arrive in Succoth between midnight and
morning.

Breathless, speechless, dripping with perspiration, and with bleeding
lips, the elder messenger sank on the threshold of Amminadab's house, now
the home of Miriam also. Both the exhausted men were refreshed with wine