When she heard this Tua's eyes shone, since above all things she desired
to see this holy monster. But in the evening when the boy came running
to her eagerly--for he had thought of nothing but the crocodile all
day, and had bought a pigeon from a school-fellow with which to feed the
brute--he found Tua in a different mood.

"I don't think that we will go to see the holy crocodile, Rames," she
said, looking at him thoughtfully.

"Why not?" he asked amazed. "There is no one about, and I have put fat
upon the key so that it will make no noise."

"Because my Ka has been with me, Rames, and told me that it is a bad act
and if we do trouble will come to us."

"Oh! may the fiend Set take your Ka," replied the lad in a rage. "Show
it to me and I will talk with it."

"I cannot, Rames, for it is _me_. Moreover, if Set took it, he would
take me also, and you are wicked to wish such a thing."

Now the boy began to cry with vexation, sobbing out that she was not to
be trusted, and that he had paid away his bronze knife, which Pharaoh
had given him when last he visited the temple, for a pigeon to tempt the
beast to the top of the water, so that they might see it, although the
knife was worth many pigeons, and Pharaoh would be angry if he heard
that he had parted with it.

"Why should we take the life of a poor pigeon to please ourselves?"
asked Tua, softening a little at the sight of his grief.