"Help me, Amen!" she cried, and flying back, grasped Rames by his left
arm just as he was falling over, then set her heels in a crack of
the rock and held on. For one moment she was dragged forward till she
thought that she must fall upon her face and be drowned or eaten with
Rames, but the next something yielded, and she and the boy tumbled in a
heap upon the stones. They rose and staggered together to the terrace.
As they went Tua saw that Rames was looking at his right hand curiously;
also that it was covered with blood, and that the little finger was torn
off it. Then she remembered nothing further, except a sound of shouts
and of heavy hammering at the copper door.

When she recovered it was to find herself in the house of Mermes with
the lady Asti bending over her and weeping.

"Why do you weep, Nurse?" she asked, "seeing that I am safe?"

"I weep for my son, Princess," she answered between her sobs.

"Is he dead of his wounds, then, Asti?"

"No, O Morning Star, he lies sick in his chamber. But soon Pharaoh will
kill him because he led her who will be Queen of Egypt into great danger
of her life."

"Not so," said Tua, springing up, "for he saved my life."

As she spoke the door opened and in came Pharaoh himself, who had been
summoned hastily from the palace. His face was white and he shook with
fear, for it had been reported to him that his only child was drowned.