"The slowest known to our law, /death by the boat/."

Hearing this and not knowing what was meant, it came into my mind that
I was to be turned adrift in a boat and there left to starve.

"Behold the reward of good hunting!" I mocked in my rage. "O King,
because of this deed of shame I call upon you the curse of all the
gods of all the peoples. Henceforth may your sleep be ever haunted by
evil dreams of what shall follow the last sleep, and in the end may
you also die in blood."

The King opened his mouth as though to answer, but from it came
nothing but a low cry of fear. Then guards rushed up and seized me.



CHAPTER VI

THE DOOM OF THE BOAT

The guards led me to my chariot and thrust me into it, and with me
Bes. I asked them if they would murder him also, to which the eunuch,
Houman, answered No, since he had committed no crime, but that he must
go with me to be weighed. Then soldiers took the horses by the bridles
and led them, while others, having first snatched away my bow and all
our other weapons, surrounded the chariot lest we should escape. So
Bes and I were able to talk together in a Libyan tongue that none of
them understood, even if they heard our words.

"Your life is spared," I said to him, "that the King may take you as a