tile alien within our borders to-day. The
heavy hand of oppression has made a wondrous race of them for strength.
Theirs is no mean intellect; great men have come from among them, and
they will be a hardy foe arrayed against us."

"They are not warriors; they are poor and unequipped for hostilities;
they are thoroughly under subjection," the young man pursued. "What
can they do against us?"

"Do!" Mentu exclaimed with impatience in the repetition. "They have
only to say to the banished Hyksos: 'Come ye, let us do battle with
Egypt. We will be your mercenaries.' They have only to send greeting
to that lean traitor Amon-meses, thus: 'Give us the Delta to be ours
and we will help you win all Egypt,' and there will be enough done."

"They must have a pact among themselves and a leader, first," Kenkenes
objected.

"Have I not said they are organized? And their leader is found. He is
a foster-brother to Meneptah; an initiated priest of Isis; a sorcerer
and an infidel of the blackest order. He is Prince Mesu, a Hebrew by
birth."

"Dost thou know him?" Kenkenes asked with interest.

"Nay, he has dwelt in Midian these forty years. He returned some time
ago and hath dwelt passively in Goshen till--"

The artist dropped his voice and came nearer to his son.

"He hath dwelt passively in Goshen till of late, and it is whispered
that some secret work against him inaugurated by the priesthood, or
mayhap the Pharaoh, hath given him provocation to revolt against
Meneptah."

After a silence Kenkenes asked in a lowered tone:

"Hath he made demonstration?"

"O, aye, he is clamoring to lead his people a three days' journey into
the wilderness to make sacrifice to their god."

"Shades of mine ancestors! If that is all, let them, so they return,"
Kenkenes said amicably.

"Let them!" the sculptor exploded. "Dost thou believe that they would
return?"

"I apprehend that the Rameside army would be capable of thwarting them
if they were disposed to depart permanently."

"Thou dost apprehend--aye, of a truth, I know thou dost! Halt all our
works of peace for an indefinite time; mass the vast army of the
Pharaoh and spend days and good arrows in retrieving the runaways,
merely that a barbarian god may smell the savor of holy animals
sacrificed! Gods! Kenkenes, thou art as trustworthy a counselor as
Har-hat!"

Thereafter there was a silence in the work-room. But a peppery man is
seldom sulky, and Kenkenes was full