oof
to the shafts of the pitiless African sun, for Katharina, his adored
play-fellow and the mistress of his ardent boy's heart, had promised him
a sweet kiss, if only he would bring her back some more exact news as to
Orion's perilous journey. Anubis had told her, the evening before, all
he had heard in the anteroom to the office, but such general information
had not satisfied her. She must see clearly before her, must know
exactly what was going on, and she was not mistaken when she imagined
that the reward she had promised the lad would spur him to the utmost.

Anubis had not indeed expected to gain his end so soon, boldly as he
dared to hope; scarcely had he pushed aside the awning, when Orion began
to explain to Nilus all his plan and purpose.

When he had finished speaking, the boy did not wait to hear Nilus reply.
Intoxicated with his success, and the prospect of a guerdon which to him
included all the bliss of heaven, he crept back to the dovecote. But
he could not go back by the way by which he had come; for if one of the
older scribes should meet him in the anteroom, he would be condemned to
return to his work. He therefore wriggled along the ridge of the roof
towards the fishing-cove, got over it, and laid hold of a gutter pipe,
intending to slip down it; unfortunately it was old and rotten-rain was
rare in Memphis--and hardly had he trusted his body after his hands when
the lead gave way. The rash youth fell with the clattering fragments of
the gutter from a height of four men; a heavy thump on the pavement was
followed by a loud cry, and in a few minutes all the officials had
heard that poor Anubis, nimble as he was, had fallen from the roof while
attending to his pets, and had broken his leg.

The two men in the impluvium were not informed of the accident till some
time later, for strict orders had been given that they were not to be
disturbed.

Nilus had received his young master's communication with growing
amazement, indignation, and horror. When Orion ended, the treasurer put
forth all the eloquence of a faithful heart, anxious for the safety of
the body and soul of the youth he loved, to dissuade him from a deed of
daring which could bring him nothing but misapprehension, disaster, and
persecution. Nilus was with all his soul a Jacobite; and the idea that
his young master was about to risk everything for a party of Melchite
nuns, and draw down upon himself the wrath and maledictions of the
patriar