the room where Merytra slept. Perchance she has
returned again."

So Asti went, and a while after re-appeared carrying something enveloped
in a cloth.

"Merytra has gone, O Queen," she said in an ominous voice, "leaving this
behind hidden beneath her bed," and she placed the object on a table.

"What is it? The mummy of a child?" asked Tua, shrinking back.

"Nay, Queen, the image of a man."

Then throwing aside the cloth Asti revealed the waxen figure shaped to
the exact likeness of Pharaoh, or rather what remained of it, for the
legs were molten and twisted, and in them could be seen the bones of
ivory and the sinews of thin wire, about which they had been moulded.
Also beneath the chin where the tongue would be, sharp thorns had
been thrust up to the root of the mouth. The thing was life-like and
horrible, and as it was, so was the dumb and stricken Pharaoh on his
bed.

Neter-Tua hid her eyes for a while, and leaned against the wall, then
she drew herself up and said:

"Call the physicians and the members of the Council, and those who can
be spared of the officers of the guard, that everyone of them may see
and bear witness to the hideous crime which has been worked against
Pharaoh by his brother, the Prince Abi, and the wizard Kaku, and their
accomplice, the woman Merytra."

So they were called, and came, and when they saw the dreadful thing
lying in its waxen whiteness before them, they wailed and cursed those
who had wrought this abominable sorcery.

"Curse them not," said Neter-Tua, "who are already accursed, and given
over to the Devourer of Souls when their time shall come. Make a record
of this deed, O Scribes, and do it swiftly."

So the scribes wrote the matter down, and the Queen and others who were
present signed the writings as witnesses. Then Neter-Tua commanded that
they should take the image and destroy it before it worked more evil,
and a priest of Osiris who was present seized it and departed.

But Neter-Tua went to Pharaoh's room and knelt by his bed, watching him,
for he seemed to be asleep. Presently he awoke, and looked round him
wildly, moving his lips. For a while he could not speak, then of a
sudden his voice burst from him in a hoarse, unnatural cry.

"They have bewitched me! I burn, I burn!" he screamed, rolling himself
to and fro upon the bed. "Avenge me, my daughter, and fear nothing, for
the gods are about you. I see their awful eyes. Oh! I burn, I burn!"

Then his head fe