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Nothing was to be seen of the inhabitants of these tents, but when the prisoners had passed them, and the drivers were exchanging greetings with the out- posts, a girl, in the long robe of an Egyptian, came towards them, and looked at them. Pentaur started as if he had seen a ghost; but Nebsecht gave expression to his astonishment in a loud cry.
The fresh air had rushed into the room through the opening of the shutter, the broad flames streamed out of the window, but still Nebsecht was alive, for his groans could be heard through the smoke. Once more Kaschta rushed towards the window, the bystanders could see that the ceiling of the room was about to fail, and called out to warn him, but he was already astride the sill.
Nebsecht looked at the other with as much astonishment and dismay, as if he had been awakened from sleep by bad tidings. Then he cried: "All that I have, I would share with the old man and Uarda." "And who would protect her?" "Her father." "That rough drunkard who to-morrow or the day after may be sent no one knows where."
Pentaur stretched himself out on the humble couch, which to him seemed softer than the silken bed of a queen, but on which nevertheless he could not sleep, for the thoughts and fancies that filled his heart were too overpowering and bewildering. The stars still sparkled in the heavens when he sprang from his bed of skins, lifted Nebsecht on to it, and rushed out into the open air.
The child was going, but Pentaur stopped him, seized him, lifted him up in his arms and kissed him; saying, as he turned to Nebsecht: "They were wise, who represented Horus the symbol of the triumph of good over evil and of purity over the impure in the form of a child. Bless you, my little friend; be good, and always give away what you have to make others happy.
His organism is perhaps of a more precious, subtle, and so more fragile nature?" Nebsecht shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps!" he said. "I thought you must know." "I how should I?" asked the leech. "I have told you they would not even let me try to find out how the hand of a forger moves." "Consider, the scripture tells us the passage of the soul depends on the preservation of the body."
"I was a long time behind the reeds there, for I did not like to come out because of the strangers there." He pointed to Nebsecht and Pentaur. "But now I must go home," he cried.
"When I saw that accursed villain there with his hand in the girl's hair, I heard and saw nothing, I " "You did right," interrupted Nebsecht. "But where will all this end?" At this moment a flourish of trumpets rang through the little valley. The officer sent by Ameni to apprehend the paraschites came up with his soldiers.
"I also for once," continued Nebsecht, "will speak in figures. Look at this wine, how pure it is, how fragrant; and yet it was trodden from the grape by the brawny feet of the vintagers. And those full ears of corn! They gleam golden yellow, and will yield us snow-white meal when they are ground, and yet they grew from a rotting seed.
"Come no nearer," he said, "but stay a moment longer. You have tears in your eyes; are they for me or only for my pain?" "For you, good noble man! my friend and my preserver!" said Uarda. "For you dear, poor Nebsecht!"
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