the room, though how and when
it appeared I do not know, but I suppose that it had crept in while we
were lost in talk. At least between me and Pharaoh, crouched upon the
ground, was the figure of a man wrapped in a beggar's cloak. It threw
back the hood and there appeared the ashen face and snowy beard of the
holy Tanofir.

"You know me, Pharaoh," he said in his deep, solemn voice. "I am
Tanofir, the King's son; Tanofir the hermit, Tanofir the seer. I have
heard all that passes, it matters not how and I come to you with a
message, I who read men's hearts. Of vows and goddesses and women I say
nothing. But this I say to you, that if you break the spirit of your
bond and suffer yonder Shabaka to go hence with a bitter heart, trouble
shall come on you. All the Great King's armies did not die yonder by the
banks of Nile, and mayhap one day he will journey to bury the bones of
those who fell, and with them _yours_, O Pharaoh. I do not think that
you will listen to me to-night, and I am sure that yonder lady, full of
the new-fanned flame of the jealous goddess, will not listen. Still let
her take counsel and remember my words: In the hour of desperate danger
let her send to Shabaka and demand his help, promising in return what he
has asked and remembering that if Isis loves her, that goddess was born
upon the Nile and loves Egypt more."

"Too late, too late, _too late!_" wailed Amada

Then she burst into tears and turning fled away with the high priest.
Pharaoh went also leaving me and Bes alone. I looked for the holy
Tanofir to speak with him, but he too was gone.

"It is time to sleep, Master," said Bes, "for all this talk is more
wearisome than any battle. Why! what is this that has your name upon
it?" and he picked a silk-wrapped package from the floor and opened it.

Within were the priceless rose-hued pearls!

CHAPTER XIV. SHABAKA FIGHTS THE CROCODILE

"Where to?" I said to Bes when we were outside the palace, for I was so
broken with grief that I scarcely knew what I did.

"To the house of the lady Tiu, I think, Master, since there you must
make preparations for your start on the morrow, also bid her farewell.
Oh!" he went on in a kind of rapture which afterwards I knew was feigned
though at the time I did not think about it, "Oh! how happy should you
be who now are free from all this woman-coil, with life new and fresh
before you. Reflect, Master, on the hunting we will have yonder in
Ethiopia. No more