"Who doubtless will know what to advise you, Bes; or, if he dies not,
I shall."

For a while we rode on in silence, each thinking his own thoughts.
Then Bes said,

"Master, before so very long we shall reach the Nile, and having with
us gold in plenty can buy boats and hire crews. It comes into my mind
that we should do well for our own safety and comfort to start at once
on a hunting journey far from Egypt; in the land of the Ethiopians,
Master. There perchance I could gather together some of the wise men
in whose hands I left the rule of my kingdom, and submit to them this
question of a woman to marry me. The Ethiopians are a faithful people,
Master, and will not reject me because I have spent some years seeing
the world afar, that I might learn how to rule them better."

"I have remembered that it cannot be, Bes," I said.

"Why not, Master?"

"For this reason. You left your country because of a woman? I cannot
leave mine again because of a woman."

Bes rolled his eyes around as though he thought to see that woman in
the desert. Not discovering her, he stared upwards and there found
light.

"Is she perchance named the lady Amada, Master?"

I nodded.