"You may hit each other as hard as you like with words, but not with your
hands."

Then be turned to his companions, and said: "Did you see the pretty girl
there, in front of the tent?"

"It is nothing to us!" answered the man he addressed. "She belongs to
the princess's train. She has been three weeks here on a visit to the
holy shrine of Hathor."

"She must have committed some heavy sin," replied the other. "If she
were one of us, she would have been set to sift sand in the diggings, or
grind colors, and not be living here in a gilt tent. Where is our red-
beard?"

Uarda's father had lingered a little behind the party, for the girl had
signed to him, and exchanged a few words with him.

"Have you still an eye for the fair ones?" asked the youngest of the
drivers when be rejoined the gang.

"She is a waiting maid of the princess," replied the soldier not without
embarrassment. "To-morrow morning we are to carry a letter from her to
the scribe of the mines, and if we encamp in the neighborhood she will
send us some wine for carrying it."

"The old red-beard scents wine as a fox scents a goose. Let us encamp
here; one never knows what may be picked up among the Mentu, and the
superintendent said we were to encamp outside the oasis. Put down your