desert and to chase wild beasts. No one was to accompany him but
Antinous, Mastor, and a few huntsmen and some dogs.

He meant to rejoin the ships at Besa. He had postponed his visit to this
place till the return journey, because he had travelled up by the western
shore of the Nile, and the passage across the river would have taken up
too much time.

The travellers' tents were pitched one sultry evening in November,
between the Nile and the limestone range, in which was arrayed a long row
of tombs of the period of the Pharaohs. Hadrian had gone to visit these,
for the remarkable pictures on the walls delighted him, but Antinous
remained behind, for he had already looked at similar works oftener than
he cared for, in Upper Egypt. He found these pictures monotonous and
unlovely, and he had not the patience to investigate their meaning as his
master did. He had been a hundred times into the ancient rock-tombs,
only not to leave Hadrian and not for his own amusement; but to-day--he
could hardly bear himself for impatience and excitement, for he knew that
a ride, a walk, of a few hours, would carry him to Besa and to Selene.
The Emperor would remain absent three or four hours at any rate, and if
he made up his mind to it he could have sought out the girl for whom his
heart was longing before his return, and still be back again before his
master.

But before acting he must reflect. There was the Emperor climbing the
hill-side where he could see him, and messengers were expected and he had
been charged to receive them. It they should bring bad news, his master
must on no account be alone. Ten times did he go up to his good hunter
to leap upon his back; once he even took down the horse's head-gear to
put on his bridle, but in the very act of slipping the complicated bit