ice us?"

"But if I should require a really large sum?"

"Such as?"

"For example, thirty thousand talents."

"Immediately?"

"No, in the course of a year."

"Thou wilt have it, holiness," answered Hiram, without hesitation.

The pharaoh was astonished at this liberality.

"But must I give you a pledge?"

"Only for form's sake," replied the Phoenician. "Give us, holiness, the
quarries in pledge, so as not to rouse the suspicions of priests. Were
it not for them, Thou wouldst have all Phoenicia without pledge or
paper."

"But the canal? Am I to sign a treaty at once?" asked Ramses.

"Not at all. Thou wilt make, O holiness, a treaty when it pleases
thee."

It seemed to the pharaoh that he was uplifted in the air. At that
moment it seemed to him that he had tasted for the first time the
sweetness of regal power, and tasted it, thanks to the Phoenicians.

"Hiram," said he, controlling himself no longer, "I give thee
permission this day to dig a canal which shall join the Red Sea with
the Mediterranean."

The old man fell at the feet of the pharaoh.

"Thou art the greatest sovereign ever seen on earth," said he.

"For the time Thou art not permitted to speak of this to any one,
because the enemies of my glory are watching. But that Thou shouldst
feel certain, I give thee this from my own finger."

He took from his finger a ring adorned with a magic stone on which was
engraved the name Horns, and put it on the finger of the Phoenician.

"The property of all Phoenicia is at thy command," said Hiram, moved
profoundly. "Thou wilt accomplish a work which will herald thy name
till the sun quenches."

The pharaoh pressed Hiram's iron-gray head and commanded him to sit
down before him.

"And so we are allies," said he, after a while, "and I hope that from
this will rise prosperity for Egypt and Phoenicia."

"For the whole world," added Hiram.

"But tell me, prince, whence hast Thou such confidence in me?"

"I know thy noble character, holiness. If thou, sovereign, wert not a
pharaoh, in a few years Thou wouldst become the most renowned of
Phoenician merchants and the chief of our council."

"Let us suppose that," replied Ramses. "But I, to keep my promises,
must first bend the priests. That is a struggle the issue of which is
uncertain."

Hiram smiled.

"Lord," said he, "if we were so insignificant as to abandon thee today
when thy treasury is empty, and thy enemies are insolent, Thou wouldst
lose