Page:Orczy--the gates of Kamt.djvu/88

 high on the shoulders of their black slaves. (These, I concluded, were deaf or mute, or both, for they stood as rigid as statues, with a vacant, semi-idiotic look on their dark faces.)

When the Queen was fully satisfied that her entire entourage had gone, she raised herself a little on her litter and began eagerly:

"My son is sick unto death, Ur-tasen. Yesterday again a veil like that of death lay over him for nigh upon an hour. His physicians are ignorant fools. I wish to know if he will live."

"Thy son will live for a year and a day," replied the high priest, solemnly.

I don't know where he had gathered this somewhat enigmatical piece of information. Certainly, if it related to the sick youth before him, it did not need any spiritual powers to gain knowledge of so obvious a fact. The Pharaoh, however, if it was his chance of life which was being so openly discussed, seemed not to trouble himself about it at all. He yawned once or twice very audibly, and amused himself by teasing his hideous little apes, taking no heed whatever of the solemn high priest, nor of the royal lady, his mother.

"Thou art ever ready with evasive answers, Urtasen," said the Queen, with an impatient frown. "It is meet that the Pharaoh, when he attains his twenty-first year, shall take unto himself a princess of royal blood for wife. But if Ra has decreed that the sickness of which he suffers shall ultimately cause his death, then it is not meet that he continue ruling over the great people of Kamt, for his hand will soon be too weak to safely guide their destinies."

"Ra has placed thee beside the throne of the holy Pharaoh to guide his hand when it begins to tremble," said the high priest.