rgot; you are forgiven. But who is that with him? Is it a man or an
ape?"

Here I screwed my head round and saw that my slave in his efforts to
obey the eunuch's instructions and hide his feet, had made himself
into a kind of ball, much as a hedgehog does, except that his big head
appeared in front of the ball.

"O King, that I understand is the Egyptian's servant and charioteer."

Again he looked interested, and exclaimed,

"Is it so? Then Egypt must be a stranger country than I thought if such
ape-men live there. Stand up, Egyptian, and bid your ape stand up also,
for I cannot hear men who speak with their mouths in the dust."

So I rose and saluted by lifting both my hands and bowing as I had
observed others do, trying, however, to keep them covered by my sleeves.
The King looked me up and down, then said briefly,

"Set out your name and the business that brought you to my city."

"May the King live for ever," I replied. "As this lord said," and I
pointed to the eunuch----

"He is not a lord but a dog," interrupted the Monarch, "who wears the
robe of women. But continue."

"As this dog who wears the robe of women said"--here the King laughed,
but the eunuch, Houman, turned green with rage and glowered at me--"my
name is Shabaka. I am a descendant of the Ethiopian king of Egypt of
that same name."

"It seems from all I hear that there are too many descendants of kings
in Egypt. When I visit that land which perhaps soon I must do with an
army at my back," here he stared at me coldly, "it may be well to lessen
their number. There is a certain Peroa for instance."

He paused, but I made no answer, since Peroa was my father's cousin and
of the fallen Royal House; also the protector of my youth.

"Well, Shabaka," he went on, "in Persia royal blood is common also,
though some of us think it looks best when it is shed. What else are
you?"

"A slayer of royal beasts, O King of kings, a hunter of lions and of
elephants," (this statement interested me, Allan Quatermain, intensely,
showing me as it did that our tastes are very persistent); "also when I
am at home, a breeder of cattle and a grower of grain."

"Good trades, all of them, Shabaka. But why came you here?"

"Idernes the satrap of Egypt, servant of the King of kings, sought for
one who would travel to the East because the King of kings desired to
hear of the hunting of lions in the lands that lie to the south of Egypt
towards the beginnings of the gre