These were
shrieking, wildly tearing their hair, beating themselves and throwing
dust upon their heads. Kenkenes immediately surmised that there was
something more than the usual death-wail in this.
He touched a man near him on the shoulder.
"Who may these distracted women be?" he asked.
"The mothers of Khafra and Sigur, and their women."
"Nay! Are these men dead? I knew them once.
"They are by this time. They were to be hanged in the dungeon of the
house of the governor of police at this hour," the man answered with
morbid relish in his tone. Kenkenes looked at him in horror.
"What had they done?" he asked. The man plunged eagerly into the
narrative.
"They were tomb robbers and robbed independently of the brotherhood of
thieves.[1] They refused to pay the customary tribute from their spoil
to the chief of robbers, and whatsoever booty they got they kept, every
jot of it. Innumerable mummies were found rifled of their gold and
gems, and although the chief of robbers and the governor of police
sought and burrowed into every den in the Middle country, they could
not find the missing treasure. Then they knew that the looting was not
done by any of the licensed robbers. So all the professional thieves
and all the police set themselves to seek out the lawless plunderers.
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