He was remote from any possible
interruption from Memphis, and the slaves in the gorge and in the
stone-pits had no opportunity to come upon his sacrilege in idle hours.
They would be held like prisoners within the limits of the quarries.
His sense of security had been strengthened by the renewed activities
in Masaarah.
With a shovel of tamarisk he cleared the slab of its drift of sand. He
found that the block broadened at the base and was separate from the
sheet of rock on which it stood. Among his supplies was a roll of reed
matting, and with this cut into proper lengths, he carpeted a
considerable space about the block. Precaution rather than luxury had
prompted this procedure, since the chipped stone falling on the
covering could be carried cleanly and at once from the spot.
Pausing long enough to eat a thin slice of white bread and
gazelle-meat, and to drink a draft from the porous and ever cooling
water bottle, he turned to the protection and concealment of his statue.
The place was strewn with tolerably regular fragments, and the building
of a segment of wall to the north at the edge of the matting required
more time than strength or skill. He built solidly against the
penetrative sand, and as high as his head.
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