nnot begin your journey to Napata for three months, when the
rain on the mountains will have filled the desert wells, I suggest that
you would do wisely to settle yourselves there for a while. Nurse Asti
here would be a dealer in pearls, and you, her daughter, would be a
musician. What say you?"

"I say that I should be glad to settle myself anywhere out of this
desert," said Tua wearily. "Lead us on to the city, Father Kepher, if
you know the way."

"I know the way, and will guide you thither in payment for that good
meal of yours. Now come. Follow me." And taking his long staff he strode
away in front of them.

"This Kepher goes at a wonderful pace for an old man," said Tua
presently. "When first we saw him he could scarcely hobble."

"Man!" answered Asti. "He is not a man, but a spirit, good or bad, I
don't know which, appearing as a beggar. Could a man eat as much as
he did--all our basketful of food? Does a man talk of cities that he
visited in his youth over a hundred years ago, or declare that my dead
husband spoke to him in his dreams? No, no, he is a ghost like those
upon the ship."

"So much the better," answered Tua cheerfully, "since ghosts have been
good friends to us, for had it not been for them I should have been dead
or shamed to-day."

"That we shall find out at the end of the story," said Asti, who was
cross and weary, for the heat of the sun was great. "Meanwhile, follow
on. There is nothing else to do."

For hour after hour they walked, till at length towards evening, when
they were almost exhausted, they struggled up a long rise of sand and
rocks, and from the crest of it perceived a large walled town set in a
green and fertile valley not very far beneath them. Towards this town
Kepher, who marched at a distance in front, guided them till they
reached a clump of trees on the outskirts of the cultivated land. Here
he halted, and when they came up to him, led them among the trees.

"Now," he said, "drop your veils and bide here, and if any should come
to you, say that you are poor wandering players who rest. Also, if it
pleases you, give me a small pearl off one of those strings, that I may
go into the city, which is named Tat, and sell it to buy you food and a
place to dwell in."

"Take a string," said Tua faintly.

"Nay, nay, Daughter, one will be enough, for in this town pearls are
rare, and have a great value."

So she gave him the gem, or rather let him take it from the silk, which