Part 13 (1/2)
”He is dead but she is the niece of the Prince Peroa, and by birth the Royal Lady of Egypt, O King”
”Good, then she is well born also Hearken, O Shabaka, to- letters fro Peroa to hand over this lady A Idernes to send her to the East with all honour and without delay, that she may enter my household as one of e and horror, and about to refuse thisof kings be pleased to give coypt?”
”It is coyptian and the dwarf his servant, with the gold and ge else that is his Let it be recorded”
Scribes sprang forward and wrote the King's words dohile like one in a dreaht towatched therow clear-ain At least he said to yptian, and the smiles last Yet remember that she has teeth behind her lips ith to tear out the throat of the faithless Man, if you play me false or fail in your mission, be sure that you shall die and in such a fashi+on that will make you think of yonder boat as a pleasant bed, and with you this woman Amada and her uncle Peroa, and all your kin and hers; yes,”
he added with a burst of shrewdness, ”and even that abortion of a dwarf to whom I have listened because he a than he sees,” I said, ”I will not be false” But I did not add to whoypt, as I have told you, and there I shall pass judg, for you have one, both of you, for you weary ive ht”
”It is the King's,” I answered as I pledged hiolden, jewelled cup which a butler had handed to me
Then the curtain fell in front of the throne and cha, one of whom took the cup and bore it in front of us Down the hall ent between the feasting nobles who all bowed to one to who had shown favour, and so out of the palace through the quiet night back to the house where I had dhile waiting audience of the King Here the cha the cup to Bes to carry, and saying that on the ether with all that was needed for my journey, also one ould receive the bow I had proings with everything that was ours Then they bowed and went
We entered the house, cli a stair to an upper cha sure that none could see or hear us
Then he turned, threw his arms about me, kissed my hand and burst into tears
CHAPTER VII BES STEALS THE SIGNET
”Oh! ulped Bes, ”I weep because I a it twice at least there has been but the twinkling of an eyelid, but the thickness of a finger nail, but the weight of a hair between you and death”
”Yes,” I said, ”and you were the eyelid, the finger nail and the hair”
”No, Master, not I, but so beyond me The tool carves the statue and the hand holds the tool but the spirit guides the hand Not once only since the sun rose hasstruck on it, perhaps the holy Tanofir, perhaps another, and it knehat note to sound So it hen I cursed you in the boat So it hen I walked back with the eunuch,to kill him on the road, and then remembered that the death of one vile eunuch would not help you at all, whereas alive he could bring , if I paid hiold in your purse which I carried
Moreover he earned his hire, for when the King grew dull, wine not yet having taken a hold on hiht aly and different from others, if only for a few minutes, after the women dancers had failed to do so”
”And what happened then, Bes?”
”Then I was fetched and did ht and tamed, which is in my pouch now You should not hate it any aan to talk to me and I saw that his ed So I told him that story of an elephant that rew up in ht, Master, did this story of an ungrateful king and what befell hi became still more unquiet in his heart about you and asked the eunuch, Houman, where you were, to which he answered that by his order you were sleeping in a boat and ht not be disturbed So that arrow ofdid not like to eat his oords and cause you to be brought fro seemed lost, some God, or perhaps the holy Tanofir who is ever present with 's in to talk about women and to ask me if I had ever seen any fairer than those dancers who out as I came in I answered that I had not noticed thely, as indeed all women had seemed to me since once upon the banks of Nile I had looked upon one as as Hathor herself for beauty The King asked ht be and I answered that I did not know since I had never dared to ask the name of one whoh as boy and girl they had been brought up together
”Then the King saw his opportunity to ease his conscience and inquired of an old councillor if there were not a lahich gave the king power to alter his decree if thereby he could satisfy his soul and acquire knowledge The councillor answered that there was such a law and began to give exa cut him short and said that by virtue of it he coht out of your bed in the boat and led before him to answer a question
”So you were sent for, Master, but I did not go with the et all about the matter before you ca, till I could not think of any an to fear lest he should declare the feast at an end But at the last, just as he was yawning and spoke to one of his councillors, bidding hiht make ready to receive him there, you came, and the rest you know”
Now I looked at Bes and said,
”May the blessing of all the Gods of all the lands be on your head, since had it not been for you I should now lie in torypt again, you will set foot on it, not as a slave but as a free old I ith us, since half of it is yours”