king am now a slave, and yet, who knows which way the Grasshopper will
jump? One day from a slave I may again grow into a king. And now let
us seek that wherein kings are as slaves and slaves as kings--sleep."

So we lay down and slept, I thanking the gods that my bed was not
yonder in the boat upon the great river.

When I woke refreshed, though after all I had gone through on the
yesterday my brain still swam a little, the light was pouring through
the carved work of the shuttered windows. By it I saw Bes seated on
the floor engaged in doing something to his bow, which, as I have
said, had been restored to us with our other weapons, and asked him
sleepily what it was.

"Master," he said, "yonder King demanded your bow and therefore a bow
must be sent to him. But there is no need for it to be that with which
you shot the lions, which, too, you value above anything you have,
seeing that it came down to you from your forefather who was a Pharaoh
of Egypt, and has been your companion from boyhood ever since you were
strong enough to draw it. As you may remember I copied that bow out of
a somewhat lighter wood, which I could bend with ease, and it is the
copy that we will give to the King. Only first I must set your string
upon it, for that may have been noted; also make one or two marks that
are on your bow which I am finishing now, having begun the task with
the dawn."

"You are clever," I said laughing, "and I am glad. The holy Tanofir,
looking on my bow, once had a vision. It was that an arrow loosed from
it would drink the blood of a great king and save Egypt. But what king
and when, he did not see."