love to me--so well that I rewarded him with
a funeral flower, knowing that you watched us. Settle your account with
him as you and his wife may wish; it is no matter of mine. But I warn
you that if you would take men's lives for such a fault as this, soon
you will have no servants left, since they all are sinners who desire to
usurp your place."

Then Abi's fury broke out. He cursed and reviled her, he called her by
ill names, swearing that she should die, who bewitched all men and was
the love of none, and who made him a mock and a shame in the sight of
Egypt. But Neter-Tua only listened until at length he raved himself to
silence.

"You talk much and do little," she said at length. "The sword is in your
hand, use it, I am here."

Maddened by her scorn he lifted the weapon and rushed at her, only to
reel back again as though he had been smitten by some power unseen. He
rested against the wall, then again rushed and again reeled back.

"You are a poor butcher," she said at length, "after so many years of
practice. Let Kaku yonder try. I think he has more skill in murder."

"Oh! your Majesty," broke in the astrologer, "unsay those cruel words,
you who know that rather than lift hands against you I would die a
thousand times."

"Yes," she answered gravely, "the Prince Abi suggested it to you but
now, did he not, after you had suggested it to him, and you refused--for
your own reasons?"

Then the sword fell from Abi's hand, and there was silence in that
chamber.

"What were you talking of, Abi, before you peeped through the shutters
and saw that captain of yours and me together in the garden, and why did
you wish to kill this dog?" she went on presently. "Must I answer for
you? You were talking of how you might be rid of me, and you wished to
kill him because he did not dare to tell you why he could not do the
deed, knowing that if he did so he must die. Well, since you desire to
know, you shall learn, and now. Look on me, wretched Man, whom men name
my husband. Look on me, accursed Slave, whom Amen has given into my
hand to punish here upon the earth, until you pass to his yonder in the
Under-world."

He looked up, and Kaku looked also, because he could not help it, but
what they saw they never told. Only they fell down upon their faces,
both of them, and groaned; beating the floor with their foreheads.

At length the icy terror seemed to be lifted from their hearts, and they
dared to glance up again, and s