self again: "Another God than ours
rules here, and the old masters were not wrong who reviled godless
strangers, and warned the uninitiated, to whom the secret of the One
must remain unrevealed, to quit their home."

The nearer he approached the king's camp, the more vividly he thought
of Bent-Anat, and the faster his heart beat from time to time when
he thought of his meeting with the king. On the whole he was full of
cheerful confidence, which he felt to be folly, and which nevertheless
he could not repress.

Ameni had often blamed him for his too great diffidence and his want of
ambition, when he had willingly let others pass him by. He remembered
this now, and smiled and understood himself less than ever, for
though he resolutely repeated to himself a hundred times that he was
a low-born, poor, and excommunicated priest, the feeling would not be
smothered that he had a right to claim Bent-Anat for his own.

And if the king refused him his daughter--if he made him pay for his
audacity with his life?

Not an eyelash, he well knew, would tremble under the blow of the axe,
and he would die content; for that which she had granted him was his,
and no God could take it from him!

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Once or twice Pentaur and his companions had had to defend themselves
against hostile mountaineers, who rushed suddenly upon them out of the
woods. When they were about two days' journey still from the end of
their march, they had a bloody skirmish with a roving band of men that
seemed to belong to a larger detachment of troops.

The nearer they got to Kadesh, the more familiar Kaschta showed himself
with every stock and stone, and he went forward to obtain information;
he returned somewhat anxious, for he had perceived the main body of the
Cheta army on the road which they must cross. How came the enemy here in
the rear of the Egyptian army? Could Rameses have sustained a defeat?

Only the day before they had met some Egyptian soldiers, who had told
them that the king was staying in the camp, and a great battle was
impending. This however could not have by this time been decided, and
they had met no flying Egyptians.

"If we can only get two miles farther without having to fight," said
Uarda's father. "I know what to do. Down below, there is a ravine, and
from it a path leads over hill and vale to the plain of Kadesh. No one
ever knew it but the Mohar and his most confidential servants. About
half-way there is a