urb of the holy city, and
passed through it to the scattering houses, set outside the
thickly-settled portion, and nearer to the necropolis. At the portals
of the most pretentious of these houses he knocked and was admitted.

He was met presently in the chamber of guests by an old man,
gray-haired and bent. This was the keeper of the tomb of Rameses the
Great.

"I am the son of Mentu," he said, "thy friend, and the friend of the
Incomparable Pharaoh. Perchance thou dost remember me."

"I remember Mentu," the old man replied, after a space that might have
been spent in rumination, or in collecting his faculties to speak.

"He decorated the tomb of Rameses," the young man continued.

"Aye, I remember. I watched him often at the work."

"Thou knowest how the great king loved him."

The old man bent his head in assent.

"He was given a signet by Rameses, and on the jewel was testimony of
royal favor which should outlive the Pharaoh and Mentu himself."

"Even so. A precious talisman, and a rare one."

"It was lost."

"Nay! Lost! Alas, that is losing the favor of Osiris. What a
calamity!" The old man shook his head and his gray brows knitted.

"But the place in which it was lost is small, and I would search for it
again."

"That is wise. The gods aid them who surrender not."

By this time the old man's face had become inquiring.

"There is need for the signet now--"

"The noble Mentu, in trouble?" the old man queried.

"The son of the noble Mentu is in trouble--the purity of an innocent
one at stake, and the foiling of a villain to accomplish," Kenkenes
answered earnestly.

"A sore need. Is it-- Wouldst thou have me aid thee?"

"Thou hast said. I come to thee to crave thy permission to search
again for the signet."

"Nay, but I give it freely. Yet I do not understand."

"The signet was lost in the tomb of the Incomparable Pharaoh. May I
not visit the crypt?"

The old man thought a moment. "Aye, thou canst search. If thou wilt
come for me to-morrow--"

"Nay, I would go this very night."

The keeper's face sobered and he shook his head.

"Deny me not, I pray thee," Kenkenes entreated earnestly. "Thou, who
hast lived so many years, hast at some time weighed the value of a
single moment. In the waste or use of the scant space between two
breaths have lives been lost, souls smirched, the unlimited history of
the future turned. And never was a greater stake upon the saving of
tim