Part 34 (1/2)

So that general departed with the two guides, looking so up Nile at the head of five thousand swordsmen

Now Bes looked at one also, my Brother, with the archers Perchance the holy Tanofir will show you whither”

”No, no,” answered Tanofir, ”uides will show him Look not so doubtful, Shabaka Did I fail you when you were in the grip of the King of kings in the East, and only your own life and that of Bes were at stake?”

”I do not know,” I answered

”You do not know, but I know, as I think do Bes and Karees which the other sent Well, if I did not fail you then, shall I fail you nohen Egypt is at stake? Follow these guides I give you, and----” here he took hold of the quiver of arrows that lay beside h he could see it with his blind eyes, touched one of them, on the shaft of which were two black and a white feather, ”rereat black bow and noted where it strikes”

Then I turned to Bes and asked,

”Where do we ain?”

”I cannot say, Brother,” he answered ”In Amada if that may be If not, at the Table of Osiris, or in the fields of the Grasshopper, or in the blackness which ss all, Gods and ether”

”Does Kareain

”She does neither,” interrupted Tanofir, ”she accompanies me to Amada, where I have need of her and she will be , for every hermit however poor, still carries his staff and his cup, even if it be cracked”

Then I shook Bes by the hand and went , and the last thing I saw in that tent was the beautiful face of Kareood omen, since I knew that it was the heart of the holy Tanofir which smiled, and that her eyes were but its mirror

Alreadymade sure that there was aourds were filled ater, I set myself at their head while in front of uides I looked upon theerous to trust an arht lead us into the midst of our foes Then I remembered that they were vouched for by the holy Tanofir, reat-uncle whoain

How had he come into our tent, I wondered, and how, blind as he ould he get back into Amada with Kares or the cos of the holy Tanofir, as more of a spirit than a man? Perhaps it was not really he e had seen, but e Egyptians called his _Ka_ or Double which can pass to and fro at will Only do _Kas_ eat? Of this s of food and drink are uard himself, I turned my mind to our own business, which was to surprise the arh and higher ground and though I could see little in that darkness, I knew that alking up a hill

Presently we crossed its crest and descending for three bowshots or so, I felt that uides turned to the left and after the line came my army of thirty thousand archers

In utter silence ent since we had no beasts with us and our sandalled feet made little noise; moreover orders had been passed down the line that the man who made a sound should die

For two hours or ain and clied we uides halted and we after them at whispered words of command One of them took me by the cloak, led e, and pointed with his white-sleeved arm I looked and there beneath me, ithin bowshot, were thousands of the watchfires of the King's arue those fires burned and ere opposite to the uide, speaking for the first tiht come from a man who had no lips, ”beneath you sleeps the Eastern host, which being so great, has not thought it needful to guard this ridge Now marshal your archers in a fourfold line in such fashi+on that at the first break of dawn they can take cover behind the rocks and shoot, everyhis fellow Do you bide here with the centre where your standard can be seen by all to north and south I and uard farther on to where the ridge draws nearer to the Nile, so that with their arrows they can hold back and slay any who strive to escape down streaenerals Summon your captains and issue your coain and I called the officers together and told theiuard of ten thousand uides on whoain Then I loom, and bade them lie down to rest and sleep if they were able; also, within thirty minutes of the sunrise, to eat and drink a little of the food they carried, to see that every boas ready and that the arroere loosened in every quiver This done, with a fehouard, I crept up to the brow of the hill or slope, and there we laid us down and watched

CHAPTER XVII THE BATTLE--AND AFTER

Two hours went by and I knew by the stars that the dawn could not be far away My eyes were fixed upon the Nile and on the lights that hung to the prows of the Great King's shi+ps Where were those who had been sent to fire the Well, their journey would be long as they must wade the river Perhaps they had not yet arrived, or perhaps they had miscarried At least the fleet seeed

At length it grew near to dawn and behindand eating as they had been bidden, whereon I too ate and drank a little, though never had I less wished for food The East brightened and far up the Nile of a sudden there appeared what at first I took to be aits strongest, as it does at this season of the year just at the time of dawn Yet that lantern see up the rigging of a shi+p

It leapt from rope to rope and from sail to sail till they blazed fiercely, and in other shi+ps also nearer to us, flareat red sheet Our ! Oh! how it burned fanned by the breath of that strong wind Fro alive, for all of them were drawn up on the bank with prows fastened in such fashi+on that they could not readily be made loose Some broke away indeed, but they were aflame and only served to spread the fire ue orshi+ps fro, and still more and more took fire lower down the line

I had no tirey, there was light enough to see though faintly I cast my eyes about me and perceived that no place in the world could have been better for archery In front the hill was steep for a hundred paces or e stones behind which bowentle slope of loose sand up which attackers would find it hard to cli flat plain whereon the Easterns were cas away, the banks of Nile

Indeed the place was ill-chosen for so great an arround been a full league in length, and even so they were crowded Out of the mist their tents appeared, thousands of them, farther than my eye could reach, and alreat pavilion of silk and gold that I guessed s