FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148  
149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   >>   >|  
le than in tranquillity. The white fronts of Memphis receded slowly, for neither took up the oars. Hotep hesitated to break the silence that fell after the end of the hymn. The shadow on the singer's face proved that the heart would have flinched at any effort to soothe it. It was the young sculptor's privilege to speak first. After a long silence, Kenkenes roused himself. "Look to the course of the bari, Hotep, and chide it with an oar if it means to beach us. I doubt me much if I am fit to control it with the wine of this wind on my brain." Hotep took up the oars and rowed strongly. "Thine offense does not sit heavily on thy conscience," he said. "I have made my peace with Athor." "Hath she given thee her word?" "Nay, no need. For I did not offend her. Rather hath she abetted me--urged me in my trespass. She persuaded me to become vagrant with her, and I followed the divine runaway into the desert. I doubt not I was chosen because I was as lawless as her needs required. Athor is beautiful and would prove herself so to her devotees. And to me was the lovely labor appointed." Hotep looked at him mystified. "By the gods," he said at last, "thou hadst better get in out of this wind." Kenkenes laughed genuinely. "My babble will take meaning ere long. If thou questionest me, I must answer, but I am determined not to betray my secret yet." "Go we to On?" Hotep asked plaintively, after a long interval of industry for him and dream for Kenkenes. The young sculptor sat up and looked at the opposite shore. "Nay," he cried, "we are long past the place where we should have landed. Yonder is the Marsh of the Discontented Soul. Let me row back." He turned and pulled rapidly toward the eastern shore. Away to the south, behind them, were the quarries of Masaarah. But they were still a considerable distance above Toora, a second village of quarry-workers, now entirely deserted. The pitted face of the mountain behind the town was without life, for, as has been seen, Meneptah was not a building monarch. Directly opposite them the abrupt wall of the Arabian hills pushed down near to the Nile and the intervening space was a flat sandy stretch, ending in a reedy marsh at the water's edge. The line of cultivation ended far to the south and north of it, though the soil was as arable as any bordering the Nile. A great number of marsh geese and a few stilted waders flew up or plunged into the w
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148  
149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Kenkenes
 

opposite

 

sculptor

 

looked

 

silence

 

pulled

 

distance

 
turned
 

considerable

 
Masaarah

quarries

 

eastern

 

rapidly

 

plaintively

 

interval

 
industry
 

determined

 
betray
 

secret

 

Discontented


Yonder

 
landed
 

mountain

 

stretch

 

ending

 

waders

 

stilted

 
intervening
 

number

 

arable


bordering
 

cultivation

 
pushed
 

pitted

 

deserted

 

plunged

 

village

 

quarry

 

workers

 

Arabian


abrupt

 

Directly

 

Meneptah

 
answer
 
building
 

monarch

 
devotees
 

control

 

heavily

 

conscience