"Paaker!" cried the widow in pain and indignation. "Let me go. It is
better for you that I should not repeat the words with which Rameses
sought to turn Nefert's heart from you. Let me go, and remember to whom
you are speaking."

But Paaker gripped her elbow the tighter, and urgently repeated his
question.

"Shame upon you!" cried Katuti, "you are hurting me; let me go! You
will not till you have heard what he said? Have your own way then, but
the words are forced from me! He said that if he did not know your
mother Setchem for an honest woman, he never would have believed you were
your father's son--for you were no more like him than an owl to an
eagle."

Paaker took his hand from Katuti's arm. "And so--and so--" he muttered
with pale lips.

"Nefert took your part, and I too, but in vain. Do not take the words
too hardly. Your father was a man without an equal, and Rameses cannot
forget that we are related to the old royal house. His grandfather, his
father, and himself are usurpers, and there is one now living who has a
better right to the throne than he has."

"The Regent Ani!" exclaimed Paaker decisively. Katuti nodded, she went
up to the pioneer and said in a whisper:

"I put myself in your hands, though I know they may be raised against me.
But you are my natural ally, for that same act of Rameses that disgraced
and injured you, made me a partner in the designs of Ani. The king