d slowly. "At the Hebrew's
sending?"

"Aye, by the sorcery of Mesu. Save for the eldest of Israel, there is
no living first-born in Egypt to-day. From that most imperial Prince
Rameses to the firstling of the cowherd, they are dead!"

The young man heard him first with a chill of horror, half-unbelieving,
barely comprehending. He was not of Israel and yet he had been spared.
Then he remembered the dread presence above him in the night,--the
chill from its noiseless wing. A light, instant and brilliant as a
revelation, broke over him. Unconsciously, he raised his eyes and
clasped his hands against his breast. He knew that his God had
acknowledged him.

When his thoughts returned to earth, he found the glittering eyes of
the sorcerer fixed upon him.

"Seeing that thou dost live, tell me what sheltered thee in this
harvest of death?" Jambres repeated.

"The Lord God of Israel, who reaped it."

The answer was direct and fearless. To the astonished priest who heard
it, it seemed triumphant.

Each of the many emotions the sorcerer experienced, displayed itself,
in turn, on his face,--amazement, anger, censure, irresolution,
distrust. After a silence, he took up the scroll and made as if to
return it to its hiding-place in the compartments under the table.

"Stay," Kenkenes said, laying his hand on the sorcerer's. "Put it not
away, for I shall carry it. Shall I, being a believer in Israel's God,
be willing for the Pharaoh to pursue Israel?"

"Nay," Jambres replied bluntly; "but thou wouldst stay him for Israel's
sake; I would prevent him for his own."

"So the same end is accomplished, wherefore quarrel over the motive?
But when thou speakest of Israel's sake, which, by the testimony of
past events, is now the more imperiled, Egypt or Israel?"

"Egypt! But it shall not be wholly overthrown through mine incautious
trust of a messenger."

The young man still retained his hold on the sorcerer's hand.

"Thou dost impugn my fidelity. Now, consider this. I could have
defeated thee and accomplished the Pharaoh's undoing by refusing to
carry the message, by keeping silence in yonder shed of image-makers.
Is it not so?"

Jambres assented.

"Even so. Instead, I offered and now I insist. Now, if thou deniest
me, there is none to carry the warning and thou, thyself, hast undone
the Pharaoh."

The sorcerer put away the hand and showed no sign of softening.

"Nay, then," Kenkenes said, "there is no nee