cross the other and fill the air with the lightning
of their play and the devilish beauty of their music. The vanquished
would not taste the nice death of a spitted heart. There was yet the
method of the stone-ax warriors in this battle, and he who fell would
be a fearful thing to see.

Perhaps it was because Kenkenes was stronger and more agile; perhaps he
remembered Deborah at that moment, or perhaps he was simply a better
fighter. Whatever the cause his blade went up and descended at last,
before the Nubian could parry, and the second servitor of Har-hat fell
on his face and died.

Chilled by the instant sobering, which follows the taking of life, the
young man sickened and whirled away from the quivering flesh. Plunging
his falchion in the sand to hide its stain, he went back to the fallen
soldier.

He knew by the look on the gray face, by the dark pool that had grown
beside him, that the warrior had fought his last fight. Kenkenes
raised the man's head, and heard these words, faintly spoken:

"He sent them in pursuit. I knew he meant to do it, but I could not
get near to kill him. So I followed them. But thou art her lover; do
thou protect her now."

"Her! Rachel?" Kenkenes cried. "Who art thou?"

"Atsu, once her taskmaster, always her--" the voice died away.

"Where is she?" Kenkenes implored. "In the name of thy gods, go not
yet! Where is she?"

The lips parted in answer, but no sound came. The arm went up as if to
point, but it fell limp without indicating direction, and with a sigh
the soldier turned his face away.

Sobbing, wild with anxiety and grief, Kenkenes shook the inert body,
pleading frantically for some sign to guide him to Rachel. But there
was no response, for the dead speak not out of Amenti.

At last Kenkenes laid the body down and stood up. It had come to him
very plainly that, but for Atsu, already these dead servitors would
have been beyond overtaking in pursuit of his love. Though a worshiper
of Israel's God, Kenkenes was still Egyptian in his instincts. The man
who had died to save Rachel he could not bury uncoffined in a grave of
sand, where the natural processes of dissolution would destroy him
utterly. His and Rachel's debts to Atsu were great, and the demand was
made upon him now to discharge all that was possible in the one act of
caring for the dead soldier's remains. Kenkenes could not bear the
body back to the group he had left about the king, for he had