the place swarms with crocodile, also."

She sat down again, and looked at the decoy birds. Their timidity had
increased into actual fear. Masanath reached a soothing hand toward
one of them and it fled. The motion of the poling-arm of Pepi
frightened it again, and with a flirt of its wings it retreated toward
Masanath.

"Stop a moment, Pepi," she said. "Let me quiet this frightened thing.
I can not fathom its terror."

"The unquiet soul, my Lady," Nari whispered, in awe.

"Strange that the gods gifted the creatures with keener sight than
men," Masanath answered, somewhat disturbed. She moved toward the
bird, talking softly, but the persuasion was as useless as if the decoy
had been a wild thing. At the nearer approach of the small hand it
took wings and flew. The mate followed, unhesitating. The shining
distance toward the west swallowed them up.

The trio on the raft looked at one another.

"Nay, now, saw ye the like before?" Masanath exclaimed, the tone of her
voice divided between astonishment and irritation at the loss of her
pets.

"Let us leave this vicinity," Pepi said, suiting the action to the
word, "it is unholy." He seized the sweep and drove the raft about,
poling with wide strokes. At that moment, a cry, which was more of a
hoarse whisper, broke from his lips.

"Body of Osiris! The river! the river!"

Masanath leaned on one hand and looked over the side of the raft. With
a bound and a shivering cry, Nari was cowering beside her, the little
craft tossing on the waves at the force of the leap. Instantly, Pepi
was at her other side, on his knees, praying and shaking. And together
the trio huddled, but only one, Masanath, was brave enough to watch
what was happening.

From the bottom of the Nile a turbid convection was taking place, as if
the river silt had been stirred up, but the fuming current was assuming
a dull red tinge. The action had been rapid. Already the stain had
predominated, streaks of clear water, only here and there, clarifying
the opaque coloring. The boat rode half its depth in red, the paddle
dripped red, the splashes of water within on the bottom were red, the
sun shone broadly into the mirroring red, a sliding, reeking red! A
lavender foam broke its bubbles against the drifting raft and a tepid,
invisible vapor, like a moist breath, exhaled from the ensanguined
surface.

Schools of fish, struggling and leaping, filled the space immediately
above the water