A little while after this talk something happened that caused Rames to change his mind about Kas, or at any rate the Ka of Tua.  In a hidden court of the temple was a deep pool of water with cemented sides, where, it was said, lived a sacred crocodile, an enormous beast that had dwelt there for hundreds of years.  Rames and Tua having heard of this crocodile, often talked of it and longed to see it, but could not for there was a high wall round the tank, and in it a door of copper that was kept locked, except when once in every eight days the priests took in food to the crocodile—­living goats and sheep, and sometimes a calf, none of which ever came back again.

Now one day Rames watching them return, saw the priest, who was called Guardian of the Door, put his hand behind him to thrust the key with which he had just locked the door, into his wallet, and missing the mouth of the wallet, let it fall upon the sand, then go upon his way knowing nothing of what he had done.

When he had gone in a great hurry, for he was a fat old priest and the dinner hour was at hand, Rames pounced upon the key and hid it in his robe.  Then he sought out the princess and said,

“Morning Star, this evening, when I come back from school and am allowed to play with you, we can look at the wonderful beast in the tank, for look, I have the key which that fat priest will not search for till seven days are gone by, before which I can take it to him, saying that I found it in the sand, or perhaps put it back into his wallet.”

When she heard this Tua’s eyes shone, since above all things she desired to see this holy monster.  But in the evening when the boy came running to her eagerly—­for he had thought of nothing but the crocodile all day, and had bought a pigeon from a school-fellow with which to feed the brute—­he found Tua in a different mood.

“I don’t think that we will go to see the holy crocodile, Rames,” she said, looking at him thoughtfully.

“Why not?” he asked amazed.  “There is no one about, and I have put fat upon the key so that it will make no noise.”

“Because my Ka has been with me, Rames, and told me that it is a bad act and if we do trouble will come to us.”

“Oh! may the fiend Set take your Ka,” replied the lad in a rage.  “Show it to me and I will talk with it.”

“I cannot, Rames, for it is me.  Moreover, if Set took it, he would take me also, and you are wicked to wish such a thing.”

Now the boy began to cry with vexation, sobbing out that she was not to be trusted, and that he had paid away his bronze knife, which Pharaoh had given him when last he visited the temple, for a pigeon to tempt the beast to the top of the water, so that they might see it, although the knife was worth many pigeons, and Pharaoh would be angry if he heard that he had parted with it.

“Why should we take the life of a poor pigeon to please ourselves?” asked Tua, softening a little at the sight of his grief.