d the herbage closely cropped. But for two months
Israel had been near Pa-Ramesu with its cattle, and the canal-borders
were again riotous with growth. The place Kenkenes came upon was most
tempting, odorous and cool. He rolled his mantle for a pillow and
flung himself into the grass, where he lay, half-buried in green, and
slept.

The April sun, hot as a torrid July noon in northern lands, discovered
the sleeper and stared into his upturned face. He flung his arm across
his eyes and slept on. Shadows fell and lengthened; the afternoon
passed, and still he slept.

Mounted couriers riding at a dead gallop, passed over the road, toward
Tanis. Following them, war-chariots thundered by with a castanet
accompaniment of jingling harness and jarring armor. Kenkenes stirred
during the tumult, but when it had receded he lay still again. Three
mounted soldiers leading a score of horses passed. The Arab in the
copse whinnied softly. A second trio of soldiers, following with a
smaller drove, heard the call from the bushes and drew up. The
foremost man spoke to another, tossed the knotted bridles to him and,
dismounting, came through the copse to the Arab. There he found the
young nobleman, sleeping.

For a moment he hesitated, but no longer. Silently he untied the
horse, led him forth, attached him with the others and speedily took
the road toward Tanis.

After these had passed the road was deserted and no more came that way.
In a little time the sun set. The wind from the north freshened and
swayed the close-standing bushes so that their branches chafed one
against another. At the sound Kenkenes, ready to wake, stirred and
opened his eyes. After a moment he sat up and looked for the Arab.
The horse was gone.

Kenkenes arose and searched industriously. The trampled space in the
road convinced him that the horse had departed with a number of others.
Hoping that he might find some trace of the lost animal among the
inhabitants, he went to the hamlet.

Two ragged lines of huts, built of sun-dried brick, formed a single
straggling street. A low shed, the first building Kenkenes came upon,
showed a flickering red light. A spare figure darted into it, just
ahead of the young man.

From the threshold, the whole of the small interior was visible.

The light came from a small annealing oven. At a table, overlaid with
a thin slab of stone, a man was modeling a cat in clay. On the
opposite side of the room was