h with broken crystals,"
interrupted Merytra, who was bathing her wounds in a basin of water.

"Would that they had cut your tongue instead of your lips, Woman,"
snarled Abi. "Continue, Kaku, and heed her not."

"And what was his message?" went on the magician. "Why, that you shall
marry the Majesty of Egypt, and rule in her right and sit in the seat
of kings. Are not these the very things that you desire, and have worked
for years to win?"

"Yes, Kaku, but you forget all that about one Rames, and the tomb that I
must hollow, and the rest."

"Rames? Merytra here can tell you of him, Prince. He is the madcap young
Count who killed the Prince of Kesh, and was sent by Neter-Tua far to
the South-lands, that the barbarians there might make an end of him
without scandal. If ever he should come back with the Beggar-man and
his message, which is not likely, you can answer him with the halter he
deserves."

"Aye, Kaku, but how will the Queen answer him? There are stories
afloat----"

"Lies, every one of them, Prince. She would have executed him at once
had it not been for the influence of Mermes, and her foster-mother,
Asti. This Rames has in him the royal blood of the last dynasty, and the
Star of Amen is not one who will share her sky with a rival star, unless
he be her lawful Lord, which is your part. If Rames or the foul Beggar
brings you any message it will be that you are King of Kesh as well as
of Egypt, and then you can kill him and take the heritage. A fig for
Rames and its stalk for the Beggar!"

"Perhaps," replied Abi more cheerfully, "at any rate I do not fear that
risk; but how about all Pharaoh's talk of tombs?"

"Being dead, Prince, it is natural that the mind of his Ka should run
on tombs, and his own royal burial, which as a matter of policy we must
give to him. Besides there the prophesy was safe, since to these same
tombs all must come, especially those of us who have seen the Nile rise
over sixty times--as I have," he added hastily. "When we reach the tomb
it will be time to deal with its affairs; till then let us be content
with life, and the good things it offers, such as thrones, and find the
love of the most beautiful woman in the world, and the rest. Harvest
your corn when it is ripe, Prince, and do not trouble about next year's
crop or whether in his grave Pharaoh's Double eats white bread or brown.
Pharaoh's daughter--or Amen's--is your business, not his ghost."

"Yes, good soothsayer," said