ing for it
but to obey the villain, whether I would or no. And what was his modest
demand? Why, nothing less than to give him all the written papers you
had left behind. But old Hib is not quite so stupid as to let himself
be caught in that way, though some people, who ought to know better, do
fancy he can be bribed and is no better than the son of an ass. What did
I do then? I pretended to be quite crushed into submission by the sight
of the signet-ring, begged Pichi as politely as I could to unfasten my
hands, and told him I would fetch the keys. They loosened the cords,
I flew up the stairs five steps at a time, burst open the door of your
sleeping-room, pushed my little grandson, who was standing by it, into
the room and barred it within. Thanks to my long legs, the others were
so far behind that I had time to get hold of the black box which you had
told me to take so much care of, put it into the child's arms, lift him
through the window on to the balcony which runs round the house towards
the inner court, and tell him to put it at once into the pigeon-house.
Then I opened the door as if nothing had happened, told Pichi the child
had had a knife in his mouth, and that that was the reason I had run
upstairs in such a hurry, and had put him out on the balcony to punish
him. That brother of a hippopotamus was easily taken in, and then
he made me show him over the house. First they found the great
sycamore-chest which you had told me to take great care of too, then
the papyrus-rolls on your writing-table, and so by degrees every written
paper in the house. They made no distinction, but put all together
into the great chest and carried it downstairs; the little black box,
however, lay safe enough in the pigeon-house. My grandchild is the
sharpest boy in all Sais!

"When I saw them really carrying the chest downstairs, all the anger I'd
been trying so hard to keep down burst out again. I told the impudent
fellows I would accuse them before the magistrates, nay, even before the
king if necessary, and if those confounded Persians, who were having the
city shown them, had not come up just then and made everybody stare at
them, I could have roused the crowd to take my side. The same evening
I went to my son-in-law-he is employed in the temple of Neith too, you
know,--and begged him to make every effort to find out what had become
of the papers. The good fellow has never forgotten the handsome dowry
you gave my Baner when he