We entered the house, climbing a stair to an upper chamber. Here Bes
barred the door and the shutters, making sure that none could see or
hear us.

Then he turned, threw his arms about me, kissed my hand and burst into
tears.



CHAPTER VII

BES STEALS THE SIGNET

"Oh! my Master," gulped Bes, "I weep because I am tired, so take no
notice. The day was long and during it twice at least there has been
but the twinkling of an eyelid, but the thickness of a finger nail,
but the weight of a hair between you and death."

"Yes," I said, "and you were the eyelid, the finger nail and the
hair."

"No, Master, not I, but something beyond me. The tool carves the
statue and the hand holds the tool but the spirit guides the hand. Not
once only since the sun rose has my mind been empty as a drum. Then
something struck on it, perhaps the holy Tanofir, perhaps another, and
it knew what note to sound. So it was when I cursed you in the boat.
So it was when I walked back with the eunuch, meaning to kill him on
the road, and then remembered that the death of one vile eunuch would
not help you at all, whereas alive he could bring me to the presence