IN THE ABODE OF KINGS.
"Hast thou a torch?"
"Nay, but it is impossible that they be here. Pah! I cannot abide the
odor of mummies."
"Yet must thou pass centuries in their company, if indeed thou art
fortunate enough to die in a civilized land." And the speaker's lips
widened till they revealed a row of yellow teeth.
Amu bent over and gazed steadily for a moment into the black opening
that yawned at his feet, then he looked up at his companion. Something
in his sombre eyes caused the yellow row of teeth to disappear. "I am
going home," he said suddenly.
"'Tis good! Go back, fetch me a torch, and I will explore for the
singing bird. I am not minded to move from this place till I shall
seize her."
"Hast thou water?"
"Nay, but thou hast a bottle at thy girdle; give it me. Even at this
moment I thirst."
"By Sechet! it is empty. But stay, there is a fountain beyond the crest
of yonder hill; go quench thy thirst. I will remain till thou shalt
return."
Besa hesitated; he looked steadily into the lowering face of Amu. "Thou
art in a strange humor to-day, friend," he said at length. "I have been
patient with thee, but I will bear no more. Give me thy flask; I will
fill it at the fountain."
The face of Amu blanched to a sickly yellow hue. His eyes glowed with
fury, but he said not a word; with a sudden quick movement, he seized
the bridle of his mule, and leaping upon its back galloped away towards
Memphis.
Besa looked after him quietly. "What may be the meaning of all this?"
he said to himself. "Stay, let me consider for a moment. The man comes
to me and says in effect this: 'Thou art a dealer in slaves; I can
procure for thee two of good value, a lad and a maiden. The maiden hath
a voice like to the sound of nightingales; yet cannot I bring them to
the proper purchasers.' At the same time I, Besa, am commissioned to
procure a singing slave for the princess, who pineth in a sickly
melancholy. But what have I suffered in the matter thus far? I have
been half killed by a fall, now am I parched with thirst, and the man
lies to me concerning his water-bottle. I saw him fill it before we
started, therefore I ventured to leave mine own, which I could not at
the moment lay my hands upon. There is no fountain behind the brow of
yonder hill. For what purpose hath the man lied? There is something
here that I cannot see. I will for the present forego the matter, but
there are two things to be set down for the future, and Besa is not the
man to forget."
Then he advanced to the opening of the tomb, which showed black in its
setting of yellow sand; kneeling clown, he looked carefully at the stone
stairway which led down into the depths. The sand was sifting in with
each breath of the hot desert wind. "It has been opened but a short
time," he remarked at length. "It will be a pious act for me to replace
the stone; Anubis will reward me for it. One must not fail in duty to
the sacred dead." Then he raised his voice, "Rest quietly, my children;
there is nought to hurt thee in the abodes of the departed. Song and
sunlight, laughter and air are needed no more by the slaves of Anubis.
His slave shalt thou be unless thou presently come forth in answer to my
cry."
The sound of his voice echoed in dismal reverberations through the
hollow blackness within, but there was no sign that his words fell upon
other ears than those sealed to eternal silence within their swathings
of spiced linen. The heavy odor of death ascended in stupefying clouds
into the face of the man as he knelt at the edge of the tomb. He drew
back a little, and the malignant smile faded from his face.
"The stone shall be put back," he said doggedly, "for I believe, by my
life, that they be down there. They will live till I shall return with
torches and men. If I secure them both, I shall be avenged also upon
Amu."
Forthwith he bent over and laid hold upon the stone. It was heavy, and
though the lad in his mad fear had succeeded in shoving it to one side,
the man could with difficulty stir it a single inch. The sun beat down
in fury upon his head, the hot wind sang in his ears with a strange
sound of buzzing insects and humming wheels. He stepped down into the
stairway, the better to grasp the stone for another mighty effort.
Suddenly a wave as of fire swept before his eyes, his hands relaxed
their hold, he reeled a little, and then fell, a nerveless heap, into
the darkness.
To Seth and Anat, who were crouching behind a huge sarcophagus, the
sound at first signified nothing but some fresh horror.
"I must cry out," urged Seth in a vehement whisper. "We shall perish in
this place, for I cannot move the stone from beneath."
But Anat held him fast. "Better slavery to death than to such a man."
Seth watched the shaft of yellow light that pierced the thick darkness.
"Presently," he thought shudderingly, "it will disappear." But the
moments crept slowly by, and the sun still poured in, revealing the
countless dancing atoms which had leapt up from the sleep of centuries
beneath the feet of the fugitives.
"Anat," he whispered, "something has happened; I will go and see."
The blind girl held him fast for a moment longer. She bent her head.
There was no sound save the sighing of the wind outside and the hissing
murmur of the sand as it drifted onto the stairway of their prison.
"Go," she said with a sigh of relief, "he has departed."
Seth rose cautiously to his feet and crept toward the opening; his eyes
had grown accustomed to the darkness now, and he could see on either
side the vast gaudily-painted wooden cases in which dwelt the dead.
Their great eyes stared at him as he hurried past. He stumbled
presently over something which lay at the foot of the stone steps.
Starting back with a cry he perceived that it was the body of a man. He
had fallen upon his face in the sand and lay quite motionless. The lad
stared at him for a moment in fascinated silence, then he bethought him
that presently the man might recover his senses. Turning, he darted
back into the darkness. "Come!" he said breathlessly in the ear of the
blind girl.
Treading lightly that they might not awake the sleeper, the two crept up
the stair, not without many a fearful backward glance at the quiet
figure which still lay on its face, the monstrous staring eyes of the
mummies looking on unmoved, and the stealthy wind already beginning to
urge the uneasy desert to "Come, cover this man that hath lain him down
to sleep unasked in the abode of kings!"
"Shall I put the stone in its place?" said Seth, when they had reached
the upper air.
"Yes," said the girl, clenching her thin hands. "Let him bide there till
the other shall seek him, and if that be never, then I care not. Would
he not have left us to perish? But the gods stayed his hand."
The lad hesitated. "He hath no water."
"Fetch him water then and food also if thou wilt. Thou art
soft-hearted; for myself I should leave him as he is. Dost thou not see
that it is now that we must make good our escape? Once the man hath
recovered himself we are lost. I can hear the bells of his beast, let
us seize it and flee away into the desert that we may find the magician
who can open the eyes of them that see not."
"We could not pass the wilderness, we should perish by the way."
Anat sat down in the sand. "Thou art a man," she said scornfully, "and
therefore wise; I am as the dust under thy feet; I have no eyes to see
with, yet shall I tell thee what shall come to pass. Go down now to our
enemy whom the gods have smitten, raise him up and pour water into his
mouth and upon his head, then when he shall come to himself say to him,
'Here now is thy beast, I will set thee upon it that thou mayest ride.
As for this maid whom thou didst covet, behold she is thine; I also will
run before thee.'" And the girl laughed aloud, and tossed her head so
that all the gold and silver coins of her necklace clinked musically
together.
Seth looked at her indignantly. "All women have the poison of asps
under their tongues," he muttered. "It hath been told me, and it is
even true, I have seen men beat their women for less; it purgeth them
from folly."
The blind girl sprang to her feet. "Wilt thou beat me because I have
proved that thou art the fool?" she cried, her voice choking with rage.
"Yes, let it be so, I care not, but I had thought that thou wast not as
others--that thou didst love me, blind, useless, helpless though I be,"
and she burst into a passion of weeping.
The lad was at her side in a moment. "I do love thee," he murmured
penitently. "I have no other on earth, thou art my all. Come! it shall
be as thou hast said, here is the beast, with such a pretty saddle,
little one, all of crimson velvet, and hung with bells of silver. It is
thine, the gods have given it thee. We will go away towards the first
halting place, I am sure that I can find it."
Anat checked her sobs after a due space; she even allowed herself to be
placed upon the back of the mule. "Have I the poison of asps under my
tongue?" she said plaintively, but with a gleam of triumph.
"Not so, by Osiris, I was a brute to say such a thing. Rather hast thou
a voice as sweet as the voice of fountains and as the voice of thrushes
that sing by the river. But I shall place water where our enemy can
drink when he awakens; and I will not close the stone altogether, I will
leave a little space where the sun may enter into that noisome place.
This shall be, shall it not, little sister?"
Anat tossed her head; she made no reply. Then Seth made haste and
poured water into a cup and set it on the step where their enemy should
see it when he awoke; he took also from his wallet a handful of parched
corn and laid it beside the cup. Looking sidewise at the man, who still
lay all along on his face just as he had been stricken, he fancied that
he saw him stir a little, and the terror came back upon him so that he
sprang up the steps two at a time, and with a mighty effort drew the
great stone forward over the opening, forgetting in his fear to leave it
open ever so little that the sun might look in.
After that the two fled away, their faces set towards the great and
terrible wilderness, beyond which lay the land of their hope.