mourning for her sister who died with the first-born. The
others,--Har-hat, Hotep, Nechutes, Menes, Seneferu, Kephren the
mohar,--all except the palace attendants had accompanied the king. The
great house of the Pharaoh was empty, solitary and haunted.

The destination of the king was a state secret that had not been
imparted to the chamberlains. Kenkenes returned into the unhappy
streets again.

He went to the square in which the loiterers were congregated, even
though there was one dead in the household, and seeking out the most
intelligent, questioned him concerning the departure of the Pharaoh.

He learned that the king and the ministers had left Tanis, and driven
south, the afternoon after the night of death. At nightfall, sixteen
chariots from the nome followed him. And though the young man inquired
of many sources in the capital, he discovered nothing further.

Avowedly, it was Meneptah's intent to overtake the Hebrews, turn them
back, or destroy them. He could not accomplish that thing with a score
of ministers and sixteen picked chariots. It was evident that he meant
to collect an army near the track of the Hebrews, and that he had
departed for the rendezvous.

If the Israelites traveled but two miles an hour, they could cover the
distance between Pa-Ramesu and the Rameside wall by the sunset of this,
the second day after the death of the first-born. It would have been
the first act of the Pharaoh to close the gates of the wall against
them. The army of the north could gather from the remotest nomes by
the close of this day also. Therefore, the hour to proceed against the
Israelites was not far away. Kenkenes knew that he might not delay,
even for a short sleep, in Tanis.

He fixed upon Pithom as the chosen spot for the rendezvous, since it
was situated on the Wady Toomilat.

He refreshed himself with a beaker of sour wine in which a recuperative
simple had been stirred, and took the road to the south.

Immediately outside of the city walls he came upon the track of the
departing king, and followed it faithfully as long as there was light
to show it to him. A dozen miles out of Tanis he ceased to run, and
thereafter his progress became slower as his fatigue increased. Toward
the end of the first watch, at the northern borders of the district
known as Succoth, at the extreme east of Goshen, he came upon a mighty
track.

Even in the dark he could see that a diaphanous gauze of dust overhu