change, give me
that bow of yours which shoots so far and straight."

"It is the King's," I answered as I pledged him in the golden, jewelled
cup which a butler had handed to me.

Then the curtain fell in front of the throne and chamberlains came
forward to lead me and Bes back to our lodging, one of whom took the cup
and bore it in front of us. Down the hall we went between the feasting
nobles who all bowed to one to whom the Great King had shown favour, and
so out of the palace through the quiet night back to the house where I
had dwelt while waiting audience of the King. Here the chamberlains
bade me farewell, giving the cup to Bes to carry, and saying that on the
morrow early my gold should be brought to me together with all that was
needed for my journey, also one who would receive the bow I had promised
to the King, which had already been returned to my lodgings with
everything that was ours. Then they bowed and went.

We entered the house, climbing a stair to an upper chamber. Here Bes
barred the door and the shutters, making sure that none could see or
hear us.

Then he turned, threw his arms about me, kissed my hand and burst into
tears.

CHAPTER VII. BES STEALS THE SIGNET

"Oh! my Master," gulped Bes, "I weep because I am tired, so take no
notice. The day was long and during it twice at least there has been but
the twinkling of an eyelid, but the thickness of a finger nail, but the
weight of a hair between you and death."

"Yes," I said, "and you were the eyelid, the finger nail and the hair."

"No, Master, not I, but something beyond me. The tool carves the statue
and the hand holds the tool but the spirit guides the hand. Not once
only since the sun rose has my mind been empty as a drum. Then something
struck on it, perhaps the holy Tanofir, perhaps another, and it knew
what note to sound. So it was when I cursed you in the boat. So it was
when I walked back with the eunuch, meaning to kill him on the road, and
then remembered that the death of one vile eunuch would not help you at
all, whereas alive he could bring me to the presence of the King, if
I paid him, as I did out of the gold in your purse which I carried.
Moreover he earned his hire, for when the King grew dull, wine not yet
having taken a hold on him, it was he who brought me to his mind as one
who might amuse him, being so ugly and different from others, if only
for a few minutes, after the women dancers had failed to do so."

"