close the temple gates, solemnize the festival among
ourselves, and allow no one to enter our precincts for sacrifice and
prayer till the fate of the sisters is made certain. If the kings
themselves make their appearance, and want to bring their troops in, we
will receive them respectfully as becomes us, but we will not give up
Klea, but consign her to the holy of holies, which even Euergetes
dare not enter without me; for in giving up the girl we sacrifice our
dignity, and with that ourselves."

The secretary bowed, and then announced that two of the prophets of
Osiris-Apis desired to speak with Asclepiodorus.

Klea had met these men in the antechamber as she quitted the
high-priest, and had seen in the hand of one of them the key with which
she had opened the door of the rock-tomb. She had started, and her
conscience urged her to go at once to the priest-smith, and tell him how
ill she had fulfilled her errand.

When she entered his room Krates was sitting at his work with his feet
wrapped up, and he was rejoiced to see her, for his anxiety for her and
for Irene had disturbed his night's rest, and towards morning his alarm
had been much increased by a frightful dream.

Klea, encouraged by the friendly welcome of the old man, who was usually
so surly, confessed that she had neglected to deliver the key to the
smith in the city, that she had used it to open the Apis-tombs, and had
then forgotten to take it out of the new lock. At this confession the
old man broke out violently, he flung his file, and the iron bolt at
which he was working, on to his work-table, exclaiming:

"And this is the way you executed your commission. It is the first time
I ever trusted a woman, and this is my reward! All this will bring evil
on you and on me, and when it is found out that the sanctuary of Apis
has been desecrated through my fault and yours, they will inflict all
sorts of penance on me, and with very good reason--as for you, they will
punish you with imprisonment and starvation."

"And yet, father," Klea calmly replied, "I feel perfectly guiltless,
and perhaps in the same fearful situation you might not have acted
differently."

"You think so--you dare to believe such a thing?" stormed the old man.
"And if the key and perhaps even the lock have been stolen, and if I
have done all that beautiful and elaborate work in vain?"

"What thief would venture into the sacred tombs?" asked Klea doubtfully.

"What! are they so unappr