moment."

"Aye, Prince, but in a year to come they will certainly eclipse that
star of yours. Prince, Amen and Hathor are against you. Look, I will
show you their journeyings on this scroll and you shall see where they
eat you up yonder, yes, yonder over the Valley of dead Kings, though
twenty years and more must go by ere then, and take this for your
comfort, during those years you shine alone," and he began to unfold a
papyrus roll.

Abi snatched it from him, crumpled it up and threw it in his face.

"You cheat!" he said. "Do you think to frighten me with this nonsense
about stars? Here is my star," and he drew the short sword at his side
and shook it over the head of the trembling Kaku. "This sharp bronze
is the star I follow, and be careful lest it should eclipse _you_, you
father of lies."

"I have told the truth as I see it," answered the poor astrologer with
some dignity, "but if you wish, O Prince, that in the future I should
indeed prophesy pleasant things to you, why, it can be done easily
enough. Moreover, it seems to me that this horoscope of yours is not so
evil, seeing that it gives to you over twenty years of life and power,
more by far than most men can expect--at your age. If after that come
troubles and the end, what of it?"

"That is so," replied Abi mollified. "It was my ill-temper, everything
has gone cross to-day. Well, a gold cup, my own, shall pay the price of
it. Bear me no ill-will, I pray you, learned scribe, and above all tell
me no falsehood as the message of the stars you serve. It is the truth