"My babble will take meaning ere long. If
thou questionest me, I must answer, but I am determined not to betray
my secret yet."
"Go we to On?" Hotep asked plaintively, after a long interval of
industry for him and dream for Kenkenes. The young sculptor sat up and
looked at the opposite shore. "Nay," he cried, "we are long past the
place where we should have landed. Yonder is the Marsh of the
Discontented Soul. Let me row back."
He turned and pulled rapidly toward the eastern shore. Away to the
south, behind them, were the quarries of Masaarah. But they were still
a considerable distance above Toora, a second village of
quarry-workers, now entirely deserted. The pitted face of the mountain
behind the town was without life, for, as has been seen, Meneptah was
not a building monarch. Directly opposite them the abrupt wall of the
Arabian hills pushed down near to the Nile and the intervening space
was a flat sandy stretch, ending in a reedy marsh at the water's edge.
The line of cultivation ended far to the south and north of it, though
the soil was as arable as any bordering the Nile. A great number of
marsh geese and a few stilted waders flew up or plunged into the water
with discordant cries and flapping of wings as the presence of the
young men disturbed the solitude.
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