o you with
her arm stretched out. Also life is short and may come to an end any
day, as you should know better than most men who have lived among
dangers, and therefore it is well that a man should take what he
desires, even if he finds afterwards that the rose he crushes to his
breast has thorns. For then at least he will have smelt the rose, not
only have looked on and longed to smell it. Therefore, before you hand
over your gold, and place your wit and strength at the service of Peroa,
make your bargain with him; namely, that if thereby you save Amada from
the King's House of Women and help to set Peroa on the throne, he shall
promise her to you free of any priestly curse, you giving her as dowry
the priceless rose-hued pearls that are worth a kingdom. So you will get
your rose till it withers, and if the thorns prick, do not blame me, and
one day you may become a king--or a slave, Amen knows which."

Now I laughed and said that I would take her counsel who desired Amada
and nothing else. As for all her talk about thorns, I paid no heed to
it, knowing that she loved me very much and was jealous of Amada who she
thought would take her place with me.

CHAPTER X. SHABAKA PLIGHTS HIS TROTH

Bes and I went armed to the palace, walking in the middle of the road,
but now that the sun was up we met no more robbers. At the gate a
messenger summoned me alone to the presence of Peroa, who, he said,
wished to talk with me before the sitting of the Council. I went and
found him by himself.

"I hear that you were attacked last night," he said after greeting me.

I answered that I was and told him the story, adding that it was
fortunate I had left the White Seal and the pearls in safe keeping,
since without doubt the would-be thieves were Easterns who desired to
recover them.

"Ah! the pearls," he said. "One of those who handled them, who was once
a dealer in gems, says that they are without price, unmatched in the
whole world, and that never in all his life has he seen any to equal the
smallest of them."

I replied that I believed this was so. Then he asked me of the value of
the gold of which I had spoken. I told him and it was a great sum, for
gold was scarce in Egypt. His eyes gleamed for he needed wealth to pay
soldiers.

"And all this you are ready to hand over to me, Shabaka?"

Now I bethought me of my mother's words, and answered,

"Yes, Prince, at a price."

"What price, Shabaka?"

"The price of the h