"You judge me and my countrymen in true Egyptian fashion; that is, they
are foreigners, and therefore must be bad men. But this time your
suspicions happen to be misplaced. Send for old Hib; he will tell you
whether I am right or not."

Nebenchari's face darkened, as Hib came into the room.

"Come nearer," said he in a commanding tone to the old man.

Hib obeyed with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Tell me, have you taken a bribe from this man? Yes or no? I must know
the truth; it can influence my future for good or evil. You are an old
and faithful servant, to whom I owe a great deal, and so I will forgive
you if you were taken in by his artifices, but I must know the truth.
I conjure you to tell me by the souls of your fathers gone to Osiris!"

The old man's sallow face turned ashy pale as he heard these words. He
gulped and wheezed some time before he could find an answer, and at last,
after choking down the tears which had forced their way to his eyes,
said, in a half-angry, half-whining tone: "Didn't I say so? they've
bewitched him, they've ruined him in this wicked land. Whatever a man
would do himself, he thinks others are capable of. Aye, you may look as
angry as you like; it matters but little to me. What can it matter
indeed to an old man, who has served the same family faithfully and
honestly for sixty years, if they call him at last a rogue, a knave, a
traitor, nay even a murderer, if it should take their fancy."

And the scalding tears flowed down over the old man's cheeks, sorely