a saying that I did not understand at the time. "Those Easterns whom
we met by the canal told Idernes about the seal, and he ordered this
to be done. That tall man was one of the messengers who came to-night
to the palace."

"Then why did they not kill us, Bes?"

"Because murder, especially of one who holds the seal, is an ugly
business, that is easily tracked down, whereas thieves are many in
Memphis and who troubles about them when they have failed? Oh! the
Grasshopper, or Amen, or both, have been with us to-night."

So I thought although I said nothing, for since we had come off
scatheless, what did it matter? Well, this. It showed me that the
signet of the Great King was indeed to be dreaded and coveted, even
here in Egypt. If Idernes could get it into his possession, what might
he not do with it? Cause himself to be proclaimed Pharaoh perhaps and
become the forefather of an independent dynasty. Why not, when the
Empire of the East was taxed with a great war elsewhere? And if this
was so why should not Peroa do the same, he who had behind him all Old
Egypt, maddened with its wrongs and foreign rule?

That same night before I slept, but after Bes and I had hidden away
the bags of gold by burying them beneath the clay floor, I laid the
whole matter before my mother who was a very wise woman. She heard me
out, answering little, then said,

"The business is very dangerous, and of its end I will not speak until
I have heard the counsel of your great-uncle, the holy Tanofir. Still,
things having gone so far, it seems to me that boldness may be the