crilege."

"And if the great god Amon cannot, or does not deign to kill you, Lady,
how will that prove that your god is greater than he?" asked the Prince.
"Perhaps he might smile and in his pity, let the insult pass, as your
god did by me."

"Thus it shall be proved, your Highness. If naught happens to me, or if
I am protected from anything that does happen, then I will dare to call
upon my god to work a sign and a wonder, and to humble Amon-Ra before
your eyes."

"And if your god should also smile and let the matter pass, Lady, as he
did by me the other day when his priests called upon him, what shall we
have learned as to his strength, or as to that of Amon-Ra?"

"O Prince, you will have learned nothing. Yet if I escape from the wrath
of Amon and my God is deaf to my prayer, then I am ready to be delivered
over into the hands of the priests of Amon that they may avenge my
sacrilege upon me."

"There speaks a great heart," said Seti; "yet I am not minded that
this lady should set her life upon such an issue. I do not believe that
either the high-god of Egypt or the god of the Israelites will stir, but
I am quite sure that the priests of Amon will avenge the sacrilege, and
that cruelly enough. The dice are loaded against you, Lady. You shall
not prove your faith with blood."

"Why not?" asked Userti. "What is this girl to you, Seti, that you
should stand between her and the fruit of her wickedness, you who at
least in name are the high-priest of the god whom she blasphemes and who
wear his robes at temple feasts? She believes in her god, leave it to
her god to help her as she has dared to say he will."

"You believe in Amon, Userti. Are you prepared to stake your life
against hers in this contest?"

"I am not so mad and vain, Seti, as to believe that the god of all the
world will descend from heaven to save me at my prayer, as this impious
girl pretends that she believes."

"You refuse. Then, Ana, what say you, who are a loyal worshipper of
Amon?"

"I say, O Prince, that it would be presumptuous of me to take precedence
of his high-priest in such a matter."

Seti smiled and answered:

"And the high-priest says that it would be presumptuous of him to push
so far the prerogative of a high office which he never sought."

"Your Highness," broke in Merapi in her honeyed, pleading voice, "I pray
you to be gracious to me, and to suffer me to make this trial, which
I have sought, I know not why. Words such as