kenes
seized her. Fearing that she might cry out and defeat his purpose, he
put his hand over her mouth.

"Your master," he demanded hoarsely. "Where is he? Answer and answer
quietly!"

For a moment she was dumb with terror.

"Gone," she gasped at last when Kenkenes shook her.

"Where? When?" he insisted.

"To Tanis, eight months since!"

"Was an Israelite maiden brought here? Answer and truly, by your
immortal soul!"

"Many months ago, aye, but she departed three days ago for Goshen," the
old woman answered falteringly.

"And she came not back?"

"Nay."

"Swear, by Osiris!"

"By Osiris--"

"And the Lady Masanath?"

"Gone, also, to Tanis with Unas, this morning."

"Thou liest! In the dark?"

"Nay, I swear by Osiris," she protested wildly. "The light came in
with the hour of dawn."

Kenkenes released her and hurried away. He did not doubt that the old
woman had told the truth. He had overslept the light. Unas could not
have taken Rachel and Masanath to Tanis together. The Israelite would
have been sent on before.

There was yet Atsu to question, and then--on to Tanis to rescue Rachel
or to avenge her.

He met no one until he reached a bazaar of jewels near the temple
square. An armed watchman stood before the tightly closed front of the
lapidary's booth, above the portal of which a flaring torch was stuck
in a sconce.

"The house of Atsu?" the watchman repeated after Kenkenes. "Atsu is no
longer a householder in Memphis."

"When did he depart?"

"Eight or nine months ago, at the persuasion of the Pharaoh."

The lightness of the man's manner irritated the already vexed spirit of
the young artist.

"Be explicit," he demanded sharply. "What meanest thou?"

"He was stripped of his insignia and reduced to the rank of ordinary
soldier," the man answered, "for pampering the Israelites. He is with
the legions in the north."

"Hath he kin in the city?"

"Nay, he is solitary."

Kenkenes walked away unsteadily. The nervous energy that had upborne
him during his intense excitement was deserting him. His hunger and
weariness were asserting themselves.

He turned down the narrow passage leading to his father's house. And
suddenly, in the way of such vagrant thoughts, it occurred to him that
the inscription on the tomb had been pointedly denied by the old
woman's statements.

"Ah, I might have known," he said impatiently. "Rachel put the writing
there for me when she left t