when you
are dead this my Ka would come to visit you, as it does to-night.'

"Then the Ka or the body of Pharaoh--I know not which it was--ceased
from speaking, and lay there a while staring at me with its cold eyes,
till at length the spirits of my four sons who are dead entered the
chamber and, lifting up the shape, carried it away. I awoke, shaking
like a reed in the wind, and ran hither up a thousand steps to find you
brawling with this low-born slut, dead Pharaoh's worn-out shoe that in
bygone years I kicked from off my foot."

Now Merytra would have answered, for she loved not such names, but
the two men looked at her so fiercely that her rage died, and she was
silent.

"Read me this vision, Man, and be swift, for the torment of it haunts
me," went on Abi. "If you cannot I strip you of your offices, and give
your carcase to the rods until you find wisdom. It was you who set me
on this path, and by the gods you shall keep me safe in it or die by
inches."

Now, seeing his great danger, Kaku grew cold and cunning.

"It is true, O Prince," he said, "that I set you on this path, this high
and splendid path, and it is true also that from the beginning I have
kept you safe in it. Had it not been for me and my counsel, long ago
you would have become but a forgotten traitor. Remember that night at
Thebes, when in your pride you desired to smite at the heart of Pharaoh,
and how I held your hand, and remember how, many a time, my wisdom has
been your guide, when left to your own rash folly you must have failed
or perished. It is true also, Prince, that in the future as in the past,
with me and by me you stand or fall. Yet if you think otherwise, find
some wiser man to lead you, and wait the end. All the rods in Egypt
cannot be broken on my back, O Abi. Now shall I speak who alone have
knowledge, or will you seek another counsellor?"

"Speak on," answered Abi sullenly, "we are fish in the same net, and
share each other's fortune to the end, whether it be Set's gridiron or
fat Egypt's pleasure pond. Fear not, what I have promised you shall have
while it is mine to give."

"Just now you promised rods," remarked Kaku, making a wry face and
replacing the remains of his wig upon his bald head, "but let that pass.
Now as to this dream of yours, I find its meaning good. How did Pharaoh
come to you? Not as a living spirit, but in the fashion of a dead man,
and who cares for dead men?"

"I do, for one, when they cut my mout