Part 12 (1/2)
So Bes waded into the water which was quite shallow here, and spat into e, he interpolated certain words in the Libyan tongue, which meant,
”O my most beloved father, s look very black, remember the vision of the holy Tanofir, who doubtless allows these things to happen to you to try your faith by direct order of the Gods Be sure that I will not leave you to perish, or if there should be no escape, that I will find a way to put you out of your e you Yes, yes, I will yet see that accursed swine, Houo to the Court to which it seeht of entry, or so the eunuch says, but soon I will be back again”
Then followed another strea, after which he waded back to land and e hi uard upon the quay who, now that darkness had co there staring at the enats for coht of the poor wretches who had suffered in this same boat and wondered if their lot would be my lot
Bes was faithful and clever, but what could a single dwarf do a all these black-hearted fiends? And if he could do nothing, oh! if he could do nothing!
The seconds seemed minutes, the minutes seemed hours, and the hours seemed years What then would the days be, passed in torture and agony while waiting for a filthy death? Where noere the Gods I had worshi+pped and--was there any God? Or was man but a self-deceiver who created Gods instead of the Gods creating him, because he did not love to think of an eternal blackness in which he would soon be sed up and lost? Well, at least that would mean sleep, and sleep is better than torment of mind or body
It came to me, I think, as so weary At any rate I opened my eyes to see that the low moon had vanished and that some of the stars which I knew as a hunter who had often steered his way by the idly why they moved, I heard the tra a co drawn in by the cord hich it was attached to the quay Next the other boat that lay over me was lifted off, the ropes that bound ere undone and I was set upon my feet, for already I was so stiff that I could scarcely stand A voice which I recognised as that of the eunuch Houman, addressed
”noble Shabaka,” said the voice, ”the Great King commands your presence at his feast”
”Is it so?” I answered in nats of the river,” a saying at which Houhed obsequiously
Next I heard the bags of gold being reuards supporting ain, and Hou just behind, perhaps because he feared my foot if he went in front
”What has chanced, Eunuch,” I asked presently, ”that I a so well?”
”I do not know, Lord,” he answered ”I only know that the King of kings has suddenly couest clothed in a robe of honour, even if to do so, you must be awakened from your rest, yes, to his own royal table, for he holds a feast this night
Lord,” he went on in a whining voice, ”if perchance fortune should have changed her face to you, I pray you bear no malice to those hen she frowned, were forced, yes, under the private Seal of Seals, against their will to carry out the co Be just, O Lord Shabaka”
”Say no more I will try to be just,” I answered ”But what is justice in the East? I only know of it in Egypt”
Noe reached one of the doors of the palace and I was taken to a cha, washed and anointed me with scents, after which they clad irdle of rose-hued pearls about me
When they had finished, preceded by Houreat pillared hall closed in with silk hangings, where h them I went to a dais at the head of the hall where between half-drawn curtains surrounded by cup-bearers and other officers, the King sat in all his glory upon a cushi+oned golden throne He had a glittering wine-cup in his hand and at a glance I saw that he was drunk, as it is the fashi+on for these Easterns to be at their great feasts, for he looked happy and human which he did not do when he was sober Or perchance, as soht afterwards, he only pretended to be drunk Also I saw soold chain about his neck and wearing a red headdress He was seated on the carpet before the throne, and saying things that rave officers behind to sn fron as he often a looked at , ”Oh, I reyptian whose arrows do not miss, the wonderful hunter whom Idernes sent toWe quarrelled, did we not, Egyptian, so,” I answered ”The King was angry and with justice, because I could not kill a lion before it frightened his horses”
This I said because my hours in the boat had made me humble, also because the words ca like that, or at least you lie well Whatever it may have been, it is done with now, asceptre that was headed with the great emerald, he stretched it out for me to touch in token of pardon
Then I knew that I was safe for he to whoiven all crimes, yes, even if he had attempted the royal life The Court knew it also, for every man who saed towardsOne of the cup-bearers too brought 's oine, which I drank thankfully, calling down health on the King
”That was a wonderful shot of yours, Egyptian,” he said, ”when you sent an arrow through the lioness that dared to attack rateful as you shall learn This slave of yours,” and he pointed to Bes in his gaudy attire, ”has brought the whole matter to my mind whence it had fallen, and, Shabaka,” here he hiccupped, ”you s look to the naked eye and when seen through a wine goblet He has told me a wonderful story--as the story, Dwarf?”
”May it please the great King,” answered Bes, rolling his big eyes, ”only a little tale of another king of reat until I cas could be
That king had a servant hom he used to hunt, indeed he wasa certain elephant whose tusks were bigger than those of any other Then the elephant charged the king and my father, at the risk of his life, killed it and clai the Ethiopians But the king who greatly desired those tusks, caused ht take them as his heir Only before he died, e, told all the other elephants of this wickedness, at which they were very angry, because they kneell that froed to him who killed them, and the elephants are a people who do not like ancient laws to be altered
So the elephants , taking heed of nothing else they rushed at the king and tore hier, and then killed the prince his son, as behind hi”