"
"I can send thee a messenger," the jailer answered.
"Ere midday," Kenkenes added.
"I hear," the passive official assented.
The solid section of wall swung shut behind him and the great bolts
shot into place.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE PETITION
Some time later the bar rattled down again, and the jailer stood
without, a scribe at his side. At a sign from the jailer, the latter
made as though to enter, but Kenkenes stopped him.
"I have need of your materials only," he said, "but the fee shall be
yours nevertheless." The man set his case on the floor and Kenkenes
put a ring of silver in the outstretched palm.
"Fail me not in a faithful messenger," the prisoner repeated to the
jailer. The official nodded, and the door was closed again.
Kenkenes sat on the floor beside the case, laid the cover back and
taking out materials, wrote thus:
"To my friend, the noble Hotep, greeting:
"This from Kenkenes, whom ill-fortune can not wholly possess, while he
may call thee his friend.
"I speak to thee out of the prison at Tape, where I am held for
stealing a bondmaiden and for executing a statue against the canons of
the sculptor's ritual. The accumulated penalty for these offenses is
great--my plight is most serious.
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