Kenkenes saw the foremost, a tall Nubian in a striped tunic, stop in
his tracks, and the second, smaller and lighter but a Nubian also,
following immediately behind, bumped against his fellow.
Mouths agape, eyes staring, they stood and marveled. The strange
presence, they discovered at once, was neither a human being nor an
apparition. It was stone--a statue.
"Sacrilege!" the first exploded. "A--a--by Amen, it is the slave
herself!"
In the little pause, Kenkenes recovered himself, but he knew that he
gave Rachel to her fate, if the pair overcame him. He caught her hand
and with the whispered word, "Run!" fled with her toward the front of
the cliff facing the Nile. It was a desperate chance for escape but he
seized it.
Immediately they were pursued and at the brink of the hill, overtaken.
The stake was too large for the young artist to risk its loss by
adhering to the unwritten rules of combat. He released Rachel, whirled
about, and as the foremost descended on him, ducked, seized the man
about the middle, and pitched him head-first down into the valley. The
second, the tall Nubian that wore the striped tunic, halted, dismayed,
and Kenkenes, catching Rachel's hand, prepared to descend.
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