Lead me to thy shelter, if thou
wilt."
With satisfaction in his manner Nechutes conducted his guest into a
comfortably furnished tent, and showed him a mattress overlaid with
sheeting of fine linen.
"Shame that thou must defer this soft sleeping till the noisy and
glaring hours of the day," Kenkenes observed as he fell on the bed.
"By this time to-morrow night, I may content myself in a bed of sand
with a covering of hyena-fending stones," the cup-bearer muttered.
"Comfort thee, Nechutes," the artist said sententiously, "But do thou
raise me from this ere daybreak, even if thou must take a persuasive
spear to me."
So saying, he fell asleep at once.
After some little employment among his effects, the cup-bearer came to
the bedside on his way back to the king's tent, and bent over his guest.
"Holy Isis! but I am glad he died not!" he said to himself. "Aye, and
there be many who are as glad as I am. Dear Ta-meri! She will be
rejoiced, and Hotep. What a great happiness for the old murket--" he
paused and clasped his hands together. "He is Mentu's only son! Now,
in the name of the mystery-dealing Hathors, how came it that he died
not with the first-born?" After a silence he muttered aloud: "Gods!
the army would barter its mummy to have the secret of his safety, this
day!"
At the first glimmerings of the dawn, the melody of many winded
trumpets arose over the encampment of the Egyptians.
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