shattering as I thought it surely would, it split in two from rim to
foot. Whether this was by chance, or whether the artist who fashioned
it in some bygone generation had worked the two halves separately and
cunningly cemented them together, to this hour I do not know. At least
so it befell.

"This is fortunate, Ana," said the Prince, laughing a little in his
light way. "Now take you the half that lies nearest to you and I will
take mine. If you die first I will lay my half upon your breast, and
if I die first you shall do the same by me, or if the priests forbid it
because I am royal and may not be profaned, cast the thing into my tomb.
What should we have done had the alabaster shattered into fragments,
Ana, and what omen should we have read in them?"

"Why ask, O Prince, seeing that it has befallen otherwise?"

Then I took my half, laid it against my forehead and hid it in the bosom
of my robe, and as I did, so did Seti.

So in this strange fashion the royal Seti and I sealed the holy compact
of our brotherhood, as I think not for the first time or the last.



CHAPTER III

USERTI

Seti rose, stretching out his arms.