rd it!" repeated Hiram, with contempt. "Beroes is the
wisest priest in Babylon, the counselor of Assyrian princes and of the
king himself."

"Let him be counselor; if he is not the pharaoh, what do I care?" said
the banker.

Rabsun rose from his chair, and threatening Dagon with his fist under
the nose, cried,

"Thou wild boar, fatted on the pharaoh's swill, Phoenicia concerns thee
as much as Egypt concerns me. Thou wouldst sell thy country for a
drachma hadst Thou the chance, leprous cur that Thou art!"

Dagon grew pale and answered with a calm voice,

"What is that huckster saying? In Tyre my sons are learning navigation;
in Sidon lives my daughter with her husband. I have lent half my
property to the supreme council, though I do not receive even ten per
cent for it. And this huckster says that Phoenicia does not concern
me!"

"Rabsun, listen to me," added he, after a while. "I wish thy wife and
children and the shades of thy fathers to be as much thought of by thee
as each Phoenician ship is by me, or each stone of Tyre and Sidon, or
even of Zarpath and Achsibu."

"Dagon, tell truth," put in Hiram.

"I not care for Phoenicia!" continued the banker, growing excited. "How
many Phoenicians have I brought here to make property, and what do I
gain from having done so! I not care? Hiram ruined two ships of mine
and deprived me of great profit; still, when Phoenicia is in question,
I sit in one room with him."

"For Thou didst think to talk with him of cheating some one," said
Rabsun.

"As much as Thou didst think of dying, fool!" retorted Dagon. "Am I a
child? do I not understand that when Hiram comes to Memphis he need not
come for traffic? O Thou Rabsun! Thou shouldst clean my stables a
couple of years."

"Enough of this!" cried Hiram, striking the table with his fist.

"We never shall finish with this Chaldean priest," muttered Rabsun,
with as much calmness as if he had not been insulted a moment before.

Hiram coughed, and said,

"That man has a house and land really in Harran, and he is called Phut
there. He got letters from Hittite merchants to merchants in Sidon, so
our caravans took him for the journey. He speaks Phoenician well, he
pays liberally. He made no demands in particular; so our people came to
like him, even much.

"But," continued Hiram, stroking his beard, "when a lion covers himself
with an ox skin, even a little of his tail will stick out. This Phut
was wonderfully wise and self-c