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Updated: June 10, 2025
Kaschta dropped from his horse, and the others did the same. After the horses had passed through the water, he carefully effaced their tracks as far as the road, then for about half a mile he ascended the valley against the stream.
Kaschta ran up and down in front of the burning pavilion, tearing his hair; now calling his child in tones of anguish, now holding his breath to listen for an answer. To rush at random into the immense-burning building would have been madness.
"Make haste, men!" cried Pentaur. "The three best horses for me, Horus, and Kaschta; the rest remain here." As the red-bearded soldier led the horses forward, the moon shone forth, and within an hour the travellers had reached the plain; they sprang on to the beasts and rode madly on towards the lake, which, when the sun rose, gleamed before them in silvery green.
By this time the soldier had rejoined Pentaur, and both listened for a few minutes; then the poet whispered to his guide: "They are speaking Egyptian, I caught a few words." "All the better," said Kaschta. "Paaker or some of his people are in there; the door is there still, and shut. If we give four hard and three gentle knocks, it will be opened. Can you understand what they are saying?"
The soldier knocked first four times, then three times. A shriek rang through the cave, and they could hear a heavy, rusty bolt drawn back, the roughly hewn door was opened, and a hoarse voice asked: "Is that Paaker?" "No," answered the soldier, "I am Kaschta. Do not you know me again, Nubi?" The man thus addressed, who was Paaker's Ethiopian slave, drew back in surprise.
"Are you still alive?" he exclaimed. "What brings you here?" "My lord here will tell you," answered Kaschta as he made way for Pentaur to enter the cave. The poet went up to the black man, and the light of the fire which burned in the cave fell full on his face. The old slave stared at him, and drew back in astonishment and terror.
The road became more difficult at every step, then it began to grow dark, and heavy drops of rain fell from the clouded sky. "Make haste, and keep close to me," cried Kaschta. "Half an hour more, and we shall be under shelter, if I do not lose my way."
"But the Regent's dumb slave, who was ordered by his master to obey me in everything to-day, helped me. We tied up her mouth that she might not be heard screaming!" "Will you leave her alone when you go to do your errand?" "Her father is with her!" "Kaschta, the red-beard?" asked the old woman in surprise. "And did he not break you in pieces like an earthenware pot?"
You people must wait, we will soon call you to come under shelter." Pentaur closely followed his guide, pushing his way through the dripping brushwood, crawling through a low passage in the rock, and at last emerging on a small rocky plateau. "Take care where you are going!" cried Kaschta. "Keep to the left, to the right there is a deep abyss. I smell smoke!
When the three men had crept back through the low passage in the rocks, and found themselves once more in the open air, they found a high wind was blowing. "The storm will soon be over," said Horus. "See how the clouds are driving! Let us have horses, Pentaur, for there is not a minute to be lost." The poet ordered Kaschta to summon the people to start but the soldier advised differently.
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