antly thereafter.

Except for these few occasions, Kenkenes had no thought of his
surroundings. He stood in the prow and looked down the shimmering
width of river, in the direction his heart had taken long before him.
And when the white cliffs that proved him close to Memphis came
shouldering up from the northern horizon, he had forgotten the stranger
in the eager, trembling anticipations that possessed him.

[1] Seb--The Egyptian Chronos.

CHAPTER XXXIV

NIGHT

On the morning of the eighteenth day, immediately after sunrise, Rachel
came to the curtains over Masanath's door, and put them aside.

Within, she saw her hostess yet in her bed-gown, her hair disordered
and her tiny feet bare. She stood before a shrine of silver, the
statue of Isis in turquoise displayed therein, and an offering of
pressed dates before it. But there was no sign of devotion or humility
in the attitude of the Egyptian. One plump arm was stretched toward
the image and the hand was tightly clenched. Neither was there any
reverence in her voice.

Rachel dropped the curtain and waited. The words came distinctly
through the linen hangings.

"Thou false one![1] thou ingrate! Is it for this that every day I have
sent two fat ducks to the altar in thy name? Is it that I must be
separated from my beloved and wedded to the man I hate, that I have
prayed to thee day and night? Who hath been more faithful to thee and
whom hast thou served more cruelly? Mark thou! If thou darest to
cause this thing to come to pass, night nor day shall I rest until I
have found the bones of Osiris and scattered them to the four winds of
heaven! So carefully shall I hide them, so widely shall I scatter
them, that no help of Nepthys, Toth or Anubis shall let thee gather
them up again! Aye, I will do it, though I die in the doing and remain
unburied, I swear by Set! Remember thou!"

Rachel went softly away.

After a time she returned. She had covered her white dress with a
mantle of brown linen and over her head she wore a wimple of the same
material. Her hair had been coiled and secured with a bodkin. When
she put her hand under the wimple and drew it across her mouth, only
her fair skin and blue eyes distinguished her from any other Egyptian
lady dressed for a long journey.

She lifted the curtains and entered, and it was long before she came
forth again. Then her eyes were hidden and her head bowed, for she had
bidden farewell to Mas