"Why?" broke in Phater more vehemently than he intended. "Don't you
know that Joseph the son of Jacob brought the Egyptians to be
Pharaoh's bond-slaves. Your chronicles and ours relate that he made
the peasants mortgage their land in return for help during the seven
lean years, and that, by his doing so, Pharaoh became sole possessor
of all the land of Egypt."

"You are not Reuben; you are Phater the Egyptian, for if you were an
Israelite, you would not have spoken thus. Our ways part. I go to my
work."

Amram laid his hand on the door, and Phater glided into the shadow
of the columns and vanished. But Amram saw by his bent back that he
had evil designs.

* * * * *

When Amram came home in the evening, he found that his wife had
borne a son. He was like other healthy children, but did not cry;
after the bath he was wrapped in linen and laid in the darkest
corner of the cottage.

The next day before sunrise Amram went again to his work in the
Temple of the Sun, and was again led into the chamber with his eyes
bandaged. There he was left alone without receiving any counsel or
advice regarding what he was to do. This carelessness seemed to him
like indifference, and indicated a general laxness in the temple
servants. Therefore he again entered the columned hall. He looked
uneasily at the Nilometer, in which the water had sunk. There was