een noted; also make one or two marks that are on
your bow which I am finishing now, having begun the task with the dawn."

"You are clever," I said laughing, "and I am glad. The holy Tanofir,
looking on my bow, once had a vision. It was that an arrow loosed from
it would drink the blood of a great king and save Egypt. But what king
and when, he did not see."

The dwarf nodded and answered,

"I have heard that tale and so have others. Therefore I play this trick
since it is better that yonder palace dweller should get the arrow than
the bow. There, it is finished to the last scratch, and none, save you
and I, would know them apart. Till we are clear of this cursed land your
bow is mine, Master, and you must find you another of the Eastern make."

"Master," I repeated after him. "Say, Bes, did I dream or did you in
truth tell me last night that you are by birth and right the king of a
great country?"

"I told you that, Master and it is true, no dream, since joy and
suffering mixed unseal the lips and from them comes that at times which
the heart would hide. Now I ask a favour of you, that you will speak no
more of this matter either to me or to any other, man or woman, unless I
should speak of it first. Let it be as though it were indeed a dream."

"It is granted," I said as I rose and clothed myself, not in my own
garments which had been taken from me in the palace, but in the splendid
silken robes that had been set upon me after I was loosed from the boat.
When this was done and I had washed and combed my long, curling hair,
we descended to a lower chamber and called for the woman of the house to
bring us food, of which I ate heartily. As we finished our meal we
heard shouts in the street outside of, "Make way for the servants of
the King!" and looking through the window-place, saw a great cavalcade
approaching, headed by two princes on horseback.

"Now I pray that yonder Tyrant has not changed his mind and that these
do not come to take me back to the boat," I said in a low voice.

"Have no fear, Master," answered Bes, "seeing that you have touched his
sceptre and drunk from his cup which he gave to you. After these things
no harm can happen to you in any land he rules. Therefore be at ease and
deal with these fellows proudly."

A minute later two princes entered followed by slaves who bore many
things, among them those hide bags filled with gold that had been set
beneath me in the boat. The elder of them bow