never sympathized
with my wheat speculation in the least," I replied.

"I do not share your idle dream of riches, but nevertheless I want to
get as much wheat into our hands as possible, especially if it comes
from the Pharaoh. You do not seem to appreciate the real reason, but
blindly chase after the bauble of fortune. It was the same when I first
saw you in Chicago, and now you are just as impulsive and thoughtless. I
have no doubt but you have already computed a hundred times how rich
you are in Earthly terms and figures."

"The time for a big value has not quite come yet, but I confess I have
estimated that it will run into many millions of dollars."

"Rubbish! What is the use of such childish nonsense? Even if we had our
projectile to return with, you could never take any of your riches back
to Earth with you!"

"And why not?" I demanded in astonishment.

"What is your fortune? It now exists in grain at an inflated famine
value. You couldn't transport the grain back to Earth, and if you could,
it would shrink in value and fail to pay the freight. What can you
exchange it for here? For lands, for women, for slaves, none of which
have any commercial value on Earth."

"But I can sell it for money!" I put in.

"Yes, for iron money worth a few dollars a ton on Earth! Why, not even
your entire fortune will buy enough iron to build a new projectile to
enable us to return. You parted with the only valuable and portable form
of property when you exchanged your gold. Now that is rapidly going into
the Pharaoh's hands, to remain there, and you can never return to Earth
as rich as you left it, though you be worth all the money and property
in the land of Kem!"

"Well, it does look a little as if I had been scheming for riches here,
without knowing just why I want them."

"Yes, you have formed that habit on Earth. Only they carry it further
there--swindle their brothers, deceive their parents, oppress the weak,
extort from the poor; work, toil, plot, cheat, rob, yes, even _kill!_ in
order to lay up a store of something they can never take away with them,
and which renders them unhappy oftener than happy while they remain to
guard it."

"I have heard that sort of talk often before, Doctor, but I never saw
the truth of it quite so plainly as now. I have outwitted and squeezed
Hotep, the man on whom the whole city now depends for existence."

"They think they depend upon him, but you know as well as I do that he
wil