"
"Nay, we will await him here."
"But the Nile will be upon your refuge in three weeks. Ye would starve
if ye drowned not," the Egyptian protested earnestly.
"It may be we shall not wait so long," Rachel put in.
Masanath looked at her while she thought busily. "If I tell it, I
break a heart. But if they bide here, they die. None other will come
to them by chance or on purpose."
"I would not risk it," she answered. Returning to the pallet of
matting she finished her breakfast in silence. After a little sigh she
glanced at the wine in one of the small amphoras which Rachel had
brought to her as a drinking-cup. "Mayhap the plague is past," she
said, hinting, "and I am athirst."
Rachel took up another jar and went forth. The hairy creature in the
corner, tethered to the amphora rack, slipped his collar and followed
her.
As soon as the Israelite was gone, Masanath went into the inner
chamber. Standing by the old woman, who lay upon a mattress, set on
the top of the sarcophagus, she said hurriedly:
"Ye may not remain here. Kenkenes is known to me and he will not
return."
"Thou dost not tell me he was false to us," Deborah exclaimed. "Nay, I
will not believe it," she declared.
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