But the same saving Providence that shields
the adventurous child attended him. He clambered up the opposite bank
and struck out for Memphis on a hard run.
He had but one purpose and that was to find Har-hat and strangle him
with grim joy. The rescue of Rachel did not occur to him, for in his
excited mind the simple touch of the fan-bearer's hand was sufficient
to kill her with its dishonor.
He did not remember anything that Rachel had told him concerning her
life in Memphis, or that Har-hat was in Tanis, and Masanath like to be
the only resident in the fan-bearer's palace. His reasoning powers
abandoned their supremacy to all the fierce impulses toward revenge and
bloodletting of which his nature was capable.
Though it was day when he entered the great capital of the Pharaohs,
the streets were almost deserted, and every doorway and window showed
interiors brilliant with a multitude of lamps. Memphis was prepared
against a second smothering of the lights of heaven.
The few pedestrians Kenkenes met fell back and gave room to the
dripping apparition which ran as if death-pursued. One told him on
demand where the mansion of Har-hat stood, and after a few slow minutes
he was within its porch.
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