"but,
believe me, you are doing what is right and wise."

"It may be so," answered Aziel, "yet I would rather die than do it, and
may my curse lie heavy upon the heads of those who have so wrought that
it must be done. Now, I pray you, deliver this scroll into the hands of
her you know, and bring me the answer if there be any, betraying it to
none, for I will double whatever sum is offered for that treachery."

"Have no fear, Prince," said Metem quietly, but without taking offence,
"this errand is undertaken for friendship, not for profit. The risk is
mine alone; the gain--or loss--is yours."

*****

An hour later the Phoenician stood in the palace of the gods, demanding,
under permit from Sakon, governor of the city, to be admitted into
the presence of the Baaltis, to whom he desired to sell certain sacred
images cunningly fashioned in gold. Presently it was announced that he
was allowed to approach, and the officers of the temple led him through
guarded passages, to the private chambers of the priestesses. Here he
found Elissa in a long, low hall, sweet with scented woods, rich with
gold, and supported by pillars of cedar.

She was seated alone at the far end of this hall, beneath the
window-plate, clad in her white robes of office, richly broidered
with emblems of the moon. Her women, most of whom were employed in
needle-work, though some whispered idly to each other, were gathered at
the lower end of the hall near to its door.

Metem saluted them as he entered, and they detained him, answering his
greeting by requests for news and with jests, not too refined, or by
demands for presents of jewels, in return for which they promised him
the blessings of the goddess. To each he made some apt reply, for even
the priestesses of Baaltis could not abash Metem. But while he bandied
words, his quick eyes noted one of their number who did not join in
this play. She was a spare, thin-lipped woman whom he knew for Mesa,
the daughter of the dead Baaltis, who had been a rival candidate for the
throne of the high-priestess when Elissa was chosen in her place.

When he entered the hall Mesa was seated upon a canvas stool, a little
apart from the others, her chin resting upon her hand, staring with an
evil look towards the place where Elissa was enthroned. Nor did her face
grow more gentle at the sight of the cunning merchant, for she knew well
it was through his plots and bribery that she had been ousted from her
mother's p