indeed----" and I turned to look for Amada, but she was gone.

So the seal and the pearls were taken and locked in the box with the
impress and borne away. Nor was I sorry to see the last of them,
wisely as it happened. Then I bade the Prince and his company good
night, and presently was driving homeward with Bes in the chariot.

Our way led us past some large houses once occupied by officers of the
Court of Pharaoh, but now that there was no Court, fallen into ruins.
Suddenly from out of these houses sprang a band of men disguised as
common robbers, whose faces were hidden by cloths with eye-holes cut
in them. They seized the horses by the bridles, and before we could do
anything, leapt upon us and held us fast. Then a tall man speaking
with a foreign accent, said,

"Search that officer and the dwarf. Take from them the seal upon a
gold chain and a rope of rose-hued pearls which they have stolen. But
do them no harm."

So they searched us, the tall man himself helping and, aided by
others, holding Bes who struggled with them, and searched the chariot
also, by the light of the moon, but found nothing. The tall man
muttered that I must be the wrong officer, and at a sign they left us
and ran away.

"That was a wise thought of mine, Bes, which caused me to leave
certain ornaments in the palace," I said. "As it is they have taken
nothing."

"Yes, Master," he answered, "though I have taken something from them,"