ntains,
the limitless city of Thebes, and the wide rippling bosom of the Nile.
The pylons and obelisks, glittering with copper and with gold, towered
to the tender sky. In the window places of palaces and of ten thousand
homes lamps shone like stars. From gardens, streets and the courts of
temples floated the faint sound of singing and of music, while on the
great embattled walls the watchmen called the hour from post to post.

It was a wondrous scene, and the heart of Abi swelled as he gazed upon
it. What wealth lay yonder, and what power. There was the glorious house
of his brother, Pharaoh, the god in human form who for all his godship
had never a child to follow after him when he ascended to Osiris, as he
who was sickly probably must do before so very long.

Yes, but before then a miracle might happen; in this way or in that a
successor to the throne might be found and acknowledged, for were not
Pharaoh and his House beloved by all the priests of Amen, and by the
people, and was not he, Abi, feared and disliked because he was fierce,
and the hated savage blood flowed in his veins? Oh! what evil god had
put it in his father's heart to give him a princess of the Hyksos for a
mother, the Hyksos, whom the Egyptians loathed, when he had the fairest
women of the world from whom to choose? Well, it was done and could
not be undone, though because of it he might lose his heritage of the
greatest throne in all the earth. Also was it not to this fierce Hyksos
blood that he owed his strength and vigour?

Why should he wait? Why should he not set his fortune on a cast? He had
three hundred soldiers with him, picked men and brave, children of the
sea and the desert, sworn to his House and interests. It was a time of
festival, those gates were ill-guarded. Why should he not force them
at the dead of night, make his way to the palace, cause Pharaoh to be
gathered to his fathers, and at the dawn discover himself seated upon
Pharaoh's throne? At the thought of it Abi's heart leapt in his breast,
his wide nostrils spread themselves, and he erected his strong head as
though already he felt upon it the weight of the double crown. Then he
turned and walked back to the pavilion.

"I am minded to strike a blow," he said. "Say now, my officer, would you
and the soldiers follow me into the heart of yonder city to-night to win
a throne--or a grave? If it were the first, you should be the general
of all my army, and you, astrologer, should