t scene.
Pentaur's caravan would have left the oasis before now. Probably the
merchant was about to renew his journey at the time of his visit to
the leopard's den.

The woman pointed to Timokles' branded cheek. Taking heart from the
apparent lack of real hostility in the manner of his captors,
Timokles asked for something to eat. He was understood, and the
three, taking Timokles, turned from the hills, and proceeded
eastward, till, coming to a black tent near some palms, the woman
went in and brought Timokles some barley cakes.

While the boy ate, the two men, still watching him, betook
themselves to work. They seemed to be makers of idols. The father
was carving a small wooden statuette of the god Thoth. The son
worked on a larger idol, the goddess Apet, or Thoueris, in the shape
of a hippopotamus walking upright on hind feet. The idol was of
green serpentine, and the mother watched with evident pride the
skill with which her son worked.

Timokles moved to rise, and instantly the suspicious eyes of the
young hippopotamus-sculptor flashed. The father dropped his
statuette, and, fiercely springing forward, forced Timokles to the
ground, bound him, and went back to the carving of the ibis-head of
Thoth.

Beneath the hand of the younger idol-maker, the hippopotamus grew in
hideous perfection. Helplessly Timokles watched the process. The
mouth of the hippopotamus-goddess was almost shut, but the teeth of
the lower jaw were visible, and it was upon their making, as well as
upon that of the wide nostrils, that the young man was expending his
skill. The huge ears of the goddess descended on the fore-feet,
which were placed on the sides of the upright animal, as a man's
arms hang by his sides when he walks, and from each of the
hippopotamus' arms there descended to the level of her feet the
Egyptian emblem of protection, called "Sa."

As Timokles looked at those emblems of protection, a new thought
grew within him.

"Women will worship that hippopotamus-goddess and think themselves
safe! I worship the God of heaven, and yet I am afraid! Shall I not
put as much trust in the delivering, protecting power of my God, as
the idol-worshiper will put in this hippopotamus?"

There came the sound of hurried footsteps, and a young girl ran by
the black tent, and spoke gayly to the woman. From the resemblance
of the maiden to the worker on the hippopotamus, Timokles had no
doubt she was his sister. But when the girl, turning he