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 perhaps wave my handkerchief through the narrow window: I tried to fumble for it, but the effort was too great; my arms were almost inert, and I literally could not stretch them out far enough. Dizzy with the feeble attempt, I leaned back against the wall tired out.

Yet the danger grew every moment more terrible. If I remained too feeble to call out, if I could not succeed in attracting Hugh's attention, if I did not in fact warn him of the damnable plot that had been hatched against him, he would presently go forth from the temple to the sacred grove of Isis, thinking to meet his bride; there he would find himself alone with the dead body of the Pharaoh, placed there by Ur-tasen's commands.

I remembered all the details of that awful, treacherous plan quite clearly: nay, more, I saw the whole thing realised before my mind's eye, as clearly as if I were gazing on a picture. I could see the high priest of Ra creeping in the wake of Hugh, I heard his hypocritical voice loudly denouncing the man I loved best on earth, and accusing him of the foul murder … and after that what would happen? … I dared not think. Would the crowd who had worshipped Hugh turn worship into execration? Would they believe that the son of Ra, he who was beloved of the gods, was nothing but a vile criminal who would strike a feeble enemy in the dark?

Who knows? A crowd is as wayward as a child, as fickle as the most capricious flirt…. And I could not warn Hugh, for I was a prisoner, and the hour of dawn was nigh.

And Neit-akrit, the beautiful Princess? … Vainly I tried to cling to that last ray of hope. Surely a girl, so young, so beautiful, could not allow such vile treachery to be committed against the man whom she loved.