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"Take it," said Hekt. "I shall never need it again. It is all over with me! How your hand shakes! Hold the wood firmly, or you will drop it before you have brought the fire." The dwarf bid the old woman farewell, and she let him kiss her without moving.
Near her lay a board, fitted with cross pieces, between which a little boy was stretched in such a way that they touched his head and his feet. Hekt understood the art of making dwarfs; playthings in human form were well paid for, and the child on the rack, with his pretty little face, promised to be a valuable article.
She gave him some water, and desired him to drink it, saying, as Uarda shook herself free from the bonds: "The Gods have predestined you to great things, you white maiden. Listen to what I, old Hekt, am telling you. The king's life is threatened, his and his children's; I purpose to save them, and I ask no reward but this-that he should have my body embalmed and interred at Thebes.
"It is well," she said, "that you have come; I shall be dead before sunrise." "Mother!" cried the dwarf horrified, "you shall live, and live better than you have done till now! Great things are happening, and for us!" "I know, I know," said Hekt. "Go away, Scherau now, Nemu, whisper in my ear what is doing?"
As Nemu, on his way back from his visit to Ani, approached his mistress's house, he was detained by a boy, who desired him to follow him to the stranger's quarter. Seeing him hesitate, the messenger showed him the ring of his mother Hekt, who had come into the town on business, and wanted to speak with him.
The one that is moulting, with closed, grey eyelids, is Rameses; the smart, smooth one, with shining eyes, is thyself. It comes to this which of you lives the longest. So far, thou hast the advantage." Ani cast an evil glance at the king's sick hawk; but Hekt said: "Both must be treated exactly alike. Fate will not be done violence to."
Nebsecht went up and down the hillside at a redoubled pace, and had long taken his place by the couch of the wounded Uarda in the hovel of the paraschites, when Nemu drew near to the abode of his Mother Hekt, from whom Paaker had received the philter. The old woman sat before the door of her cave.
"I will tell thee what to swear 'If I do not keep my word to Hekt who gives the Mohar into my power may the Spirits whom she rules, annihilate me before I mount the throne. Do not be vexed, my lord and say only 'Yes. What I can tell, is worth more than a mere word." "Well then yes!" cried the Regent, eager for the mighty revelation.
"Keep your magic to yourself," said a girl in a husky voice. "Since you muttered your words over me, and gave me that drink to make me grow slight and lissom again, I have been shaken to pieces with a cough at night, and turn faint when I am dancing." "But look how slender you have grown," answered Hekt, "and your cough will soon be well." "When I am dead," whispered the girl to the old woman.
Behind Ani's pavilion stood a tent, enclosed in a wall or screen of canvas, within which old Hekt was lodged; Ani had secretly conveyed her hither on board his own boat. Only Katuti and his confidential servants knew who it was that lay concealed in the mysteriously shrouded abode.
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