a----"

"One of the names of the first known Queens of Sheba," muttered Higgs;
"the other was Belchis."

"Under pretence of attending her medically," I went on, "for otherwise
their wretched etiquette would scarcely have allowed me access to one so
exalted, I talked things over with her. She told me that the idol of
the Fung is fashioned like a huge sphinx, or so I gathered from her
description of the thing, for I have never seen it."

"What!" exclaimed Higgs, jumping up, "a sphinx in North Central Africa!
Well, after all, why not? Some of the earlier Pharaohs are said to have
had dealings with that part of the world, or even to have migrated from
it. I think that the Makreezi repeats the legend. I suppose that it is
ram-headed."

"She told me also," I continued, "that they have a tradition, or rather
a belief, which amounts to an article of faith, that if this sphinx
or god, which, by the way, is lion, not ram-headed, and is called
Harmac----"

"Harmac!" interrupted Higgs again. "That is one of the names of the
sphinx--Harmachis, god of dawn."

"If this god," I repeated, "should be destroyed, the nation of the Fung,
whose forefathers fashioned it as they say, must move away from that
country across the great river which lies to the south. I have forgotten
its name at the moment, but I think it must be a branch of the Nile.

"I suggested to her that, in the circumstances, her people had better
try to destroy the idol. Maqueda laughed and said it was impossible,
since the thing was the size of a small mountain, adding that the Abati
had long ago lost all courage and enterprise, and were content to sit in
their fertile and mountain-ringed land, feeding themselves with tales of
departed grandeur and struggling for rank and high-sounding titles, till
the day of doom overtook them.

"I inquired whether she were also content, and she replied, 'Certainly
not'; but what could she do to regenerate her people, she who was
nothing but a woman, and the last of an endless line of rulers?

"'Rid me of the Fung,' she added passionately, 'and I will give you
such a reward as you never dreamed. The old cave-city yonder is full of
treasure that was buried with its ancient kings long before we came to
Mur. To us it is useless, since we have none to trade with, but I have
heard that the peoples of the outside world worship gold.'

"'I do not want gold,' I answered; 'I want to rescue my son who is a
prisoner yonder.'

"'Then,'