thy the study to ponder how he might
have fared in battle with a god?"

Kenkenes lifted his head suddenly and regarded her.

"Aye," she continued, "I have given thee food for thought. Futile
indeed were Israel's hopes if it set itself unaided against the
Pharaoh. But the God of Israel hath appointed His hour and hath
already descended into fellowship with His chosen people. He hath
promised to lead us forth, and the Divine respects a promise. So a God
against a Pharaoh. Doth it not appear to thee, Egyptian, that there
approaches a marvelous time?"

"Give me but faith in the hypothesis and I shall say, of a surety," he
replied.

"Thou hast said. Shall we not go on, my master?"

"I am Kenkenes, the son of Mentu," he told her.

She bent her head in acknowledgment of the introduction and moved
forward as if to climb up by the projecting edges of the strata. But
he put a powerful arm about her and lifted her into the valley. With a
light bound he was beside her. Ahead of them was profound darkness,
hedged by black and close-drawn walls and canopied by distant and
unillumining stars. She resumed her place behind him though he was
moved to protest, but her deliberate manner seemed to demand its way.
So they continued slowly.

"Thou givest me interest in the God of Israel," he said, to reopen the
subject. "The Egyptian dwells in his gods, but thou sayest that the
God of Israel dwells in Israel."

"Even so. But thou speakest of Israel's God, even after the fashion of
my people. They are jealous, saying that the true God hath but one
love and that is Israel. If they would think it, let them, but He is
the all-God, of all the earth, the One God--thy God as well as mine."

"Mine!" Kenkenes exclaimed.

"Thou hast said."

"Now, by all things worshipful, this is news. I had ever thought that
our gods are those to whom we bow. Either thou sayest wrong or I have
been remiss in my devotions."

"Nay, listen," she said earnestly, stepping to his side. "Already have
I told thee of the captain of Israel. He was reared among princes in
the house of the Pharaoh, and he is learned in all the wisdom of Egypt.
He instructeth the elders concerning Jehovah, and from mouth to mouth
his wisdom traverseth till it reacheth the ears of the young. This,
then, I have from the lips of Moses, who speaketh naught but the truth.
In early times all on earth had perished for wickedness by the sending
of the One God, save a hol