Page:Orczy--the gates of Kamt.djvu/260

 but, as far as I could ascertain, the rest of the building Was deserted and the royal bride-elect was unattended. The Pharaoh had evidently just finished speaking, for he was leaning exhausted against one of the pillars: he looked so very cadaverous and ill that I was seriously anxious for him, and at the risk of interrupting a private conclave between mother and son, I tried to get to him, but the marble gateway was closed. After the manner peculiar to Egyptian architects, it had been made to work with a secret spring, by which a child could set it in motion if he knew its working, but which the strongest man in the world, if he were ignorant, could not even shake; and I, of course, had no idea where and how that secret spring worked.

Suddenly I heard Queen Maat-kha's voice:

"Was it to tell me all this, oh, my son," she said, "that thou didst come, like a snake in the night, to pour thy poison into my ear, even while I worshipped at Isis's shrine?"

He laughed his usual sarcastic laugh.

"My poison?" he retorted. "Nay! sweet mother, that potion which thou must drink to the full is none of my mixing. Already thou didst taste a few of its bitter drops; I but add the last thought of deadly aconite to make it more unpalatable still."

"And art satisfied?" she asked quietly.

"Not quite," he replied with sudden vehemence, coming a step or two closer to her, "not quite, for that evil hand which, with arrogant pride, will snatch the kingdom of Kamt from my dying grasp hath already taken from me the priceless treasure which was the only joy of my life."

"I do not understand."

"He came," hissed the sick man close to her ear, "and with one look, one word, won that which I would