ess soon arrive here to demand that you be given
up to them. Take, therefore, another draught of wine and a piece of
bread. I will then give you in charge of a trusty slave, who will lead
you through the garden and through a small door at the back, and will
guide you to any spot where you may wish to go. Even now, doubtless, a
watch is being kept up in the front of the house. When the officials
arrive I shall tell them the truth--that coming, as I drove, upon a
lad who was being attacked and murdered by a number of brutal
peasants, I carried him off in my chariot. As to the shouts I heard,
that you were the slayer of the Cat of Bubastes, I regarded it as an
invention designed to hinder me from interfering on your behalf; that
I questioned you upon your arrival here, and finding that, as I had
supposed, you were entirely innocent of the offense charged against
you, I urged you to leave at once, letting you depart by the garden
gate in order to escape the fury of your persecutors. As you are not
an Israelite, no one can suppose that I could have any motive for
shielding an offender from the punishment of his crimes. Do not thank
me, for time presses, and you must be moving, so as to be well away
before it is known that you have left. May the God we both worship,
though as yet in ignorance, guide and preserve you and carry you and
your friends through the dangers that beset you."

Moses drew back the curtains from before the entrance to the chamber
and clapped his hands, and ordered the servant who answered the call
to tell Mephres to come to him. An old slave speedily appeared, and
Moses ordered him to take Amuba out by the private way and to guide
him by quiet roads back to the city. Then cutting short his guest's
expressions of thanks for the great kindness he had rendered him, he
hurried him away, for he knew that at any moment the officials might
arrive from the city.

It was well that Amuba had been supplied with a guide, for upon
issuing into the night air--for by this time darkness had fallen--he
found that he could with difficulty direct his steps; his head
throbbed as if it would split from the blows that had been dealt him,
and every limb ached. The old slave, however, seeing that he stumbled
as he walked, placed his staff in one of Amuba's hands, and taking him
firmly by the arm led him steadily on. It seemed to the lad that he
went on walking all night, and yet it was less than an hour after
starting when hi