ng
it and the air was heavy with the most volatile particles. The sandy
earth had been ground and worked to the depth of over a foot. How
difficult had it been for the rearmost ranks to cover this ploughed
soil! The track was a mile in width, and by the nature of the marks
upon it, Kenkenes knew that husbandmen, not warriors, had passed over
this spot. It was the path of Israel, leading east to the Rameside
wall.

Kenkenes tightened his sandal straps and continued toward the south.
Ahead of him, the horizon began to glow and then an edge,--a half,--all
of a perfect moon lifted a vast orange disk above the world. At its
first appearance it was sharply cut by a tower of the city of Pithom.

"Now, the God of Israel be thanked," he said to himself, "for another
mile I can not cover."

The gates were tightly closed and a sentry from the wall challenged him.

"I bring a message to the Pharaoh," he answered.

"The Son of Ptah is not within the walls."

"Hath he departed," Kenkenes wearily asked, "or came he not hither?"

"He came not to Pithom."

"Come thou down, then, and let me in, friend, for I am spent."

In a little time, he entered the inn of the treasure city, was given a
bed, upon which he flung himself without so much as loosening the
kerchief on his head, and slept.

CHAPTER XLIII

"THE PHARAOH DREW NIGH"

In mid-afternoon of the following day, Kenkenes awoke and made ready to
take up his search again. He was weary, listless and sore, but his
mission urged him as if death threatened him.

The young man's athletic training had taught him how to recuperate.
Most of the process was denied him now, because of his haste and the
little time at his command, but the smallest part would be beneficial.
He stepped into the streets of the treasure city, and paused again,
till the recollection of the sorrow upon Egypt returned to him to
explain the gloom over Pithom. The great melancholy of the land,
attending him hauntingly, oppressed him with a sense of culpability.
And he dared not ask himself wherein he deserved his good fortune above
his countrymen, lest he seem to question the justice of the God of his
adoption.

At a bazaar he purchased two pairs of horse-hide sandals, for the many
miles on the roads had worn out the old and he needed foot-wear in
reserve. From the booth he went straight to the baths, now wholly
deserted; for when Egypt mourned, like all the East, she neglected her
person.