"But it does not concern you and me," replied the child, "but the good,
holy father Pentaur, who was so kind to me, and who saved your life."

"I am a great friend of Pentaur," said the prince. "Is it not true,
Uarda? He may speak with confidence before me."

"I may?" said Scherau, "that is well. I have slipped away; Hekt
may come back at any moment, and if she sees that I have taken myself off
I shall get a beating and nothing to eat."

"Who is this horrible Hekt?" asked Rameri indignantly.

"That Uarda can tell you by and by," said the little one hurriedly. "Now
only listen. She laid me on my board in the cave, and threw a sack over
me, and first came Nemu, and then another man, whom she spoke to as
Steward. She talked to him a long time. At first I did not listen, but
then I caught the name of Pentaur, and I got my head out, and now I
understand it all. The steward declared that the good Pentaur was
wicked, and stood in his way, and he said that Ameni was going to send
him to the quarries at Chennu, but that that was much too small a
punishment. Then Hekt advised him to give a secret commission to the
captain of the ship to go beyond Chennu, to the frightful mountain-mines,
of which she has often told me, for her father and her brother were
tormented to death there."

"None ever return from thence," said the prince. "But go on."

"What came next, I only half understood, but they spoke of some drink
that makes people mad. Oh! what I see and hear!--I would he contentedly
on my board all my life long, but all else is too horrible--I wish that