houses once occupied by officers of the
Court of Pharaoh, but now that there was no Court, fallen into ruins.
Suddenly from out of these houses sprang a band of men disguised as
common robbers, whose faces were hidden by cloths with eye-holes cut
in them. They seized the horses by the bridles, and before we could do
anything, leapt upon us and held us fast. Then a tall man speaking with
a foreign accent, said,

"Search that officer and the dwarf. Take from them the seal upon a gold
chain and a rope of rose-hued pearls which they have stolen. But do them
no harm."

So they searched us, the tall man himself helping and, aided by others,
holding Bes who struggled with them, and searched the chariot also, by
the light of the moon, but found nothing. The tall man muttered that I
must be the wrong officer, and at a sign they left us and ran away.

"That was a wise thought of mine, Bes, which caused me to leave certain
ornaments in the palace," I said. "As it is they have taken nothing."

"Yes, Master," he answered, "though I have taken something from them,"
a saying that I did not understand at the time. "Those Easterns whom we
met by the canal told Idernes about the seal, and he ordered this to be
done. That tall man was one of the messengers who came to-night to the
palace."

"Then why did they not kill us, Bes?"

"Because murder, especially of one who holds the seal, is an ugly
business, that is easily tracked down, whereas thieves are many in
Memphis and who troubles about them when they have failed? Oh! the
Grasshopper, or Amen, or both, have been with us to-night."

So I thought although I said nothing, for since we had come off
scatheless, what did it matter? Well, this. It showed me that the signet
of the Great King was indeed to be dreaded and coveted, even here in
Egypt. If Idernes could get it into his possession, what might he not do
with it? Cause himself to be proclaimed Pharaoh perhaps and become the
forefather of an independent dynasty. Why not, when the Empire of the
East was taxed with a great war elsewhere? And if this was so why should
not Peroa do the same, he who had behind him all Old Egypt, maddened
with its wrongs and foreign rule?

That same night before I slept, but after Bes and I had hidden away the
bags of gold by burying them beneath the clay floor, I laid the whole
matter before my mother who was a very wise woman. She heard me out,
answering little, then said,

"The business is very