t of Amada penned in
yonder temple like a lamb that awaits the butcher's knife.

Suddenly, coming from the door of the tent which I thought was closed, I
heard a deep voice say,

"I have ever noted that those of Ethiopian blood are melancholy after
sundown, though of Egyptians I had thought better things."

Now about this voice there was something familiar to me, still I said
nothing, nor did the others, for to speak the truth, all of us were
frightened and thought that we must dream. For how could any thing that
breathed approach this tent through a triple line of sentries? So we sat
still, staring at the darkness, till presently in that darkness appeared
a glow of light, such as comes from the fire-flies of Ethiopia. It grew
and grew while we gasped with fear, till presently it took shape, and
the shape it took was that of the ancient withered face, the sightless
eyes, and the white beard of the holy Tanofir. Yes, there not two feet
from the ground seemed to float the head of the holy Tanofir, limned in
faint flame, which I suppose must have been reflected on to it from the
light of some camp-fire without.

"O my beloved master!" cried Karema, and threw herself towards him.

"O my beloved Cup!" answered Tanofir. "Glad am I to know you well and
unshattered."

Then a torch was lit and lo! there before us, wrapped in his dark cloak
sat the holy Tanofir.

"Whence come you, my Great-uncle?" I asked amazed.

"From less far than you do, Nephew," he answered. "Namely out of Amada
yonder. Oh! ask me not how. It is easy if you are a blind old beggar
who knows the path. And by the way, if you have aught to eat I should be
glad of a bite and a sup, since in Amada food has been scarce for this
last month, and to-night there is little left."

Karema sped from the tent and presently returned with bread and wine of
which Tanofir partook almost greedily.

"This is the first strong drink that I have tasted for many a year," he
said as he drained the goblet; "but better a broken vow than broken wits
when one has much to plan and do. At least I hope the gods will think so
when I meet them presently. There--I am strong again. Now, say, what is
your force?"

We told him.

"Good. And what is your plan?"

We shook our heads, having none.

"Bes," he said sternly, "I think you grow dull since you became a
king--or perhaps it is marriage that makes you so. Why, in bygone years
schemes would have come so fast that they would ha