Part 15 (1/2)
At length we cahhad his posts which were in charge of Arabs who lived in tents by wells of water, or soht to the sand beneath and the burning sand above, and reached the borders of Egypt
Here, upon the very boundary line, the two officers halted the cavalcade saying that their orders were to return thence andThere then we parted, Bes and I with the six hunters who still chose to cling to uides and servants going back The good horses that we rode froether with the sumpter beasts, since horses broken to the saddle were hard to coypt where they were trained to draw chariots These we took, sending backthat beast which bore the gold and the hunters serving as a guard
Indeed I was glad to see the last of those Easterns although they had brought us safely and treated us well, for all the while I was never sure but that they had some orders to lead us into a trap, or perhaps to old and the priceless, rose-hued pearls, any two of which orth it all But such was not their command nor did they dare to steal them on their own account, since then, even if they escaped the vengeance of the King, their wives and all their faypt near the Salt Lakes that are not far fro the canal that the old Pharaohs had dug, which proved easy for it was silted up Before we reached it we found soardens and I heard one of them call to another,
”Here cohbour?”
”I do not know,” answered the other, ”but when I passed down the canal thisfro the other tent by fifty hours ago, have warned the officers”
”Nohat does that mean?” I asked of Bes
”Neither 's one ahead of us all the way from the city, have told the officer of the frontier fort that we are co, so he has advanced to the ford to meet us, for what purpose I do not know”
”Nor do I,” I said, ”but I e could take another road, if there were one”
”There is none, Master, for above and below the canal is full of water and the banks are too steep for horses to cliht a while, then added,
”Take the royal seal, Master It ave it to me, and I examined it more closely than I had done before
It was a cylinder of plain white shell hung on a gold chain, that which Bes had bitten through, but nowout the broken link On this cylinder were cut figures; as I think of a priest presenting a noble to a God, over as the crescent of the moon, while behind the God stood a ures wereI know not what The workrown shalloith time and use for the cylinder see that had descended froh with a bar of silver on which it turned
I put the seal which was like no other that I had seen, being the work of an early and sie, roundthe steep bank of the canal we came to the ford where the sand that had silted in was covered by not more than a foot of water As we entered it, on the top of the further bank appeared a body of about thirty ar's banner, on which I noted was blazoned the very figures that were cut upon the cylinder Noas too late to retreat, so we rode through the water and ,
”In the na, reeting!” I answered ”What would you with Shabaka, Officer of the King?”
”Only to do hi has reached us and we come to escort you to the Court of Idernes, the Satrap of the King and Governor of Egypt who sits at Sais”
”That is not my road, Officer I travel to Me toAfterwards, perchance, I shall visit the high Idernes”
”To whom our commands are to take you now, lancing round at his arive co”
”Seize Shabaka and his servants,” said the officer briefly, whereon the soldiers rode forward to surround us
I waited till they were near at hand Then suddenly I plunged my hand beneath my robe and drew out the small, white seal which I held before the eyes of the officer, saying,
”Who is it that dares to lay a finger upon the holder of the King's White Seal? Surely that man is ready for death”
The officer stared at it, then leapt froround, crying,
”It is the ancient signet of the Kings of the East, given to their first forefather by Sas the fortunes of the Great House! Pardon, ranted,” I answered, ”because what you did you did in ignorance