of Thebes might have comprised something over
half a million inhabitants, the dwellers of that grim and impregnable
prison were not few in number.

Kenkenes was led through the doors, down a low-roofed, narrow,
stone-walled corridor to the room of the governor of police.

This was a hall, with a lofty ceiling, highly colored and supported by
loteform pillars of brilliant stone. Toth, the ibis-headed, and the
Goddess Ma, crowned with plumes, her wings forward drooping, were
painted on the walls. A long table, massive, plain and solid like a
sarcophagus, stood in the center of the room. A confused litter of
curled sheets of papyrus, and long strips of unrolled linen scrolls
were distributed carelessly over the polished surface. At one side
were eight plates of stone--the tables of law, codified and blessed by
Toth.

The governor of police was absent, but his vice, who was jailer and
scribe in one, sat in a chair behind the great table.

When the party entered, he sat up, undid a new scroll, wetted the reed
pen in the pigment, and was ready.

"Name?" he began, preparing to write.

"That, thou knowest," Kenkenes retorted. The Nubian bowed respectfully
and approaching, whispered to the scribe. The official ran over some
of the scrolls and having found the one he sought, proceeded to make
his entries from the information contained therein.

When the man had finished Kenkenes nodded toward the eight volumes of
the law.

"If thou art as acquainted with the laws of Egypt as thine office
requires, thou knowest that no free-born Egyptian may be kept ignorant
of the charge that accomplished his arrest. Wherefore am I taken?"

"For sacrilege and slave-stealing," the scribe replied calmly.

"At the complaint of Har-hat, bearer of the king's fan," Kenkenes added.

"Until such time as stronger proof of thy misdeeds may be brought
against thee," the scribe continued.

"Even so. In plainer words, I shall be held till I confess what he
would have me tell, or until I decay in this tomb. Let me give thee my
word, I shall do neither. Unhand me. I shall not attempt to escape."

At a sign from the scribe the four men released him and took up a
position at the doors. Kenkenes opened his wallet and displayed the
signet. The scribe took it and read the inscription. There was no
doubting the young man's right to the jewel for here was the name of
Mentu, even as the chief adviser had given it in identifying the
prisone