l-fellow with which to feed the
brute--he found Tua in a different mood.

"I don't think that we will go to see the holy crocodile, Rames," she
said, looking at him thoughtfully.

"Why not?" he asked amazed. "There is no one about, and I have put fat
upon the key so that it will make no noise."

"Because my Ka has been with me, Rames, and told me that it is a bad act
and if we do trouble will come to us."

"Oh! may the fiend Set take your Ka," replied the lad in a rage. "Show
it to me and I will talk with it."

"I cannot, Rames, for it is _me_. Moreover, if Set took it, he would
take me also, and you are wicked to wish such a thing."

Now the boy began to cry with vexation, sobbing out that she was not to
be trusted, and that he had paid away his bronze knife, which Pharaoh
had given him when last he visited the temple, for a pigeon to tempt the
beast to the top of the water, so that they might see it, although the
knife was worth many pigeons, and Pharaoh would be angry if he heard
that he had parted with it.

"Why should we take the life of a poor pigeon to please ourselves?"
asked Tua, softening a little at the sight of his grief.

"It's taken already," he answered. "It fluttered so that I had to sit on
it to hide it from the priest, and when he had gone it was dead. Look,"
and he opened the linen bag he held, and showed her the dove cold and
stiff.

"As you did not mean to kill it, that makes a difference," said Tua
judicially. "Well, perhaps my Ka did not mean that we should not have
one peep, and it is a pity to waste the poor pigeon, which then will
have died for nothing."

Rames agreed that it would be the greatest of pities, so the two
children slipped away through the trees of the garden into the shadow of
the wall, along which they crept till they came to the bronze door. Then
guiltily enough Rames put the great key into the lock, and with the help
of a piece of wood which he had also made ready, that he set in the ring
of the key to act as a lever, the two of them turning together shot back
the heavy bolts.

Taking out the key lest it should betray them, they opened the door
a little and squeezed themselves through into the forbidden place. No
sooner had they done so than almost they wished themselves back again,
for there was something about the spot that frightened them, to say
nothing of the horrible smell which made Tua feel ill. It was a great
tank, with a little artificial island in its c