beyond forgiveness! This morning I went with Amuba with our bows and
arrows to shoot a hawk which has for some time been slaying the
waterfowl. It came down and we shot together. Amuba killed the hawk,
but my arrow struck a tree and flew wide of the mark, and entering the
cats' house killed Paucis, who was chosen only two days to take the
place of the sacred cat in the temple of Bubastes."

An exclamation of horror broke from the high priest, and he recoiled a
pace from his son.

"Unhappy boy," he said, "your life is indeed forfeited. The king
himself could not save his son from the fury of the populace had he
perpetrated such a deed."

"It is not my life I am thinking of, father," Chebron said, "but first
of the horrible sacrilege, and then that I alone cannot bear the
consequences, but that some of these must fall upon you and my mother
and sister; for even to be related to one who has committed such a
crime is a terrible disgrace."

Ameres walked up and down the room several times before he spoke.

"As to our share of the consequences, Chebron, we must bear it as best
we can," he said at last in a calmer tone than he had before used; "it
is of you we must first think. It is a terrible affair; and yet, as
you say, it was but an accident, and you are guiltless of any
intentional sacrilege. But that plea will be as nothing. Death is the
punishment for slaying a cat; and the one you have slain having been
chosen to succeed the cat of Bubastes is of all others the one most
sacred. The question is, What is to be done? You must fly and that
instantly, though I fear that flight will be vain; for as soon as the
news is known it will spread from one end of Egypt to the other, and
every man's hand will be against you, and even by this time the
discovery may have been made."

"That will hardly be, father; for Amuba has buried the cat among the
bushes, and has left the door of the house open so that it may be
supposed for a time that it has wandered away. He proposed to me to
fly with him at once; for he declares that he is determined to share
my fate since we were both concerned in the attempt to kill the hawk.
But in that of course he is wrong; for it is I, not he, who has done
this thing."

"Amuba has done rightly," Ameres said. "We have at least time to
reflect."

"But I do not want to fly, father. Of what good will life be to me
with this awful sin upon my head? I wonder that you suffer me to
remain a moment in