key."

"I noted it," said Peroa.

"Then ask him, O Prince, where is the key now."

"What is that to you, Dwarf?" broke in the man. "The key is my mark of
office as chief butler to the High Satrap. Must I always bear it for
your pleasure?"

"Not when it has been taken from you, Butler," answered Bes. "See, here
it is," and from his sleeve he produced the key hanging to a piece of
the chain. "Listen, O Prince," he said. "I struggled with this man and
the key was in my left hand though he did not know it at the time, and
with it some of the chain. Compare them and judge. Also his mask slipped
and I saw his face and knew him again."

Peroa laid the pieces of the chain together and observed the workmanship
which was Eastern and rare. Then he clapped his hands, at which sign
armed men of his household entered from behind him.

"It is the same," he said. "Butler of Idernes, you are a common thief."

The man strove to answer, but could not for the deed was proved against
him.

"Then, O Prince," asked Bes, "what is the punishment of those thieves
who attack passers-by with violence in the streets of Memphis, for such
I demand on him?"

"The cutting off of the right hand and scourging," answered Peroa, at
which words the butler turned to fly. But Bes leapt on him like an ape
upon a bird, and held him fast.

"Seize that thief," said Peroa to his servants, "and let him receive
fifty blows with the rods. His hand I spare because he must travel."

They laid the man down and the rods having been fetched, gave him the
blows until at the thirtieth he howled for mercy, crying out that it was
true and that it was he who had captained the robbers, words which Peroa
caused to be written down. Then he asked him why he, a messenger from
the Satrap, had robbed in the streets of Memphis, and as he refused to
answer, commanded the officer of justice to lay on. After three more
blows the man said,

"O Prince, this was no common robbery for gain. I did what I was
commanded to do, because yonder noble had about him the ancient White
Seal of the Great King which he showed to certain of the Satrap's
servants by the banks of the canal. That seal is a holy token, O Prince,
which, it is said, has descended for twice a thousand years in the
family of the Great King, and as the Satrap did not know how it had come
into the hands of the noble Shabaka, he ordered me to obtain it if I
could."

"And the pearls too, Butler?"

"Yes, O Prince,