"Do you desire to come?" I inquired.

"O Lord Shabaka," answered their spokesman, "we do, though some of us
must leave wives and children behind us."

"Why?" I asked.

"For two reasons, Lord. Here we are men disgraced, though through no
fault of our own and if you were to leave us in this land, soon the
anger of the King would find us out and we should lose not only our
wives and children, but with them our lives. Whereas in another land
we may get other wives and more children, but never shall we get
another life. Therefore we would leave those dear ones to our friends,
knowing that soon the women will forget and find other husbands, and
that the children will grow up to whatever fate is appointed them,
thinking of us, their fathers, as dead. Secondly we are hunters by
trade, and we have seen that you are a great hunter, one whom we shall
always be proud to serve in the chase or in war, one, too, who went
out of his path to save our lives, because he saw that we had been
unjustly doomed to a cruel death. Therefore we desire nothing better
than to be your slaves, hoping that perchance we may earn our liberty
from you in days to come by our good service."

"Is that the wish of all of you?" I asked.

Speaking one by one, they said that it was, though tears rose in the
eyes of some of them who were married at the thought of parting from
their women and their little ones, who, it seemed might not be brought
with them because they were the people of the King and had not been
named in the bet. Moreover, horses could not be found for so many, nor