leaping to the ground and angrily
confronting Aaron.

"A truth," the Hebrew answered calmly. "The Princess Ta-user is a
fugitive charged with treason."

Seti turned cold and smote his forehead. "Undone through me!" he
groaned.

"Not so, my son. Thou art undone through her. She betrayed thee."

Seti turned upon him with a fierce movement.

"Peace!" the Hebrew interrupted the furious speech on the prince's
lips. "I bear thee no malice."

"I will give ear to no tales against the princess," Seti avowed with
ire.

"Thy blind trust hath already wrought havoc with thee. Let it not
bring heavy punishment upon thy head. Thou hast dealt kindly with me,
and I am beholden to thee. Give me leave to discharge my debt."

The prince looked stubbornly at Aaron for a moment, but the doubt that
had begun to assert itself in his mind clamored for proof or refutation.

"Say on," he said.

"The story is long," the Hebrew explained mildly, "and the sun is
ardent. There are friends in yonder house. Let us ask the shelter of
their roof for an hour."

Gathering his robes about him with peculiar grace, he went through the
grass toward a low, capacious tent, pitched by a trickling branch of
the great canal. Seti followed moodily.

A black-haired Israelitish woman, sitting on the earth before the
lifted side of the tent, arose, and reverently kissed the hem of
Aaron's robes. Her dark-eyed brood appeared at various angles of the
tent, and at a sign and a word from the woman they did obeisance and
hailed the ancient visitor in soft Hebrew.

After a short colloquy between Aaron and the woman of Israel, the
children were dismissed to play in the fields and the woman carried the
bowl and basket of lentils out of ear-shot of her house.

"Let us enter," Aaron said, with an inclination of his head toward
Seti. He stooped and preceded the young man into the home of the
Hebrew.

The prince saw the black dispose himself on the grass outside, with his
eyes upon the sumpter-mule.

Aaron sat upon one of the rugs, and Seti, following his example, took
another.

"Say on," the prince urged.

The Hebrew began at once.

"What I tell thee, O my son, will soon be talked abroad over the land.
But if thou hast a doubt in thy heart, and art like to question my
truth-speaking, there are witnesses I may summon, such as no wise man
will deny. And these be Jambres, and the twelve priests of the cities
of the north, and the innkeeper a