Page:Orczy--the gates of Kamt.djvu/337

 We neared Men-ne-fer towards the early morning, and, after a rest in the palace, we went to meet Ur-tasen in the temple of Ra.

He looked to me very much aged, and anxiety had traced many more lines on his face. He met Hugh very eagerly, but knelt humbly on the floor, waiting for him to speak.

"Where is Princess Neit-akrit?" asked Hugh.

"To-night her boat will have reached her palace, where she has decided to remain until the obsequies of the dead Pharaoh, when she will come to Men-ne-fer," replied the high priest, humbly, and almost in a whisper.

"And those priests who dared lay hands upon her person?"

"They await her pardon in the vault beneath the temple of Isis. But I do not doubt that Neit-akrit will grant it."

Hugh breathed a sigh of relief. There was no doubt that Ur-tasen had not even thought of defiance; moreover, we gathered from this that, though he feared and hated the beloved of the gods, he did not distrust him.

"What dost thou know of the land which lies beyond the gates of Kamt?" asked Hugh, abruptly, after a slight pause, during which he had scanned with a scornful frown the figure of the high priest kneeling at his feet.

"Nay, I know nothing, oh, beloved of the gods. I care not to know, whatever in my dreams I may at times have guessed. Never hath foot of man crossed the valley of death and lived."

"Yet I came. Dost know from whence?"

"Thou saidst it: from the foot of the throne of the gods."

"Ay. And thither will I return, taking with me the