“At once; nor did she doubt thy generosity.  She esteems thee highly—­I repeat it; and if an arrow from a Cheta’s bow or a visitation of the Gods attained Mena, she would joyfully place her child in thine arms, and Nefert believe me has not forgotten her playfellow.  The day before yesterday, when she came home from the Necropolis, and before the letter had come from the camp, she was full of thee—­

     ["To be full (meh) of any one” is used in the Egyptian language for
     “to be in love with any one.”]

nay called to thee in her dreams; I know it from Kandake, her black maid.”  The pioneer looked down and said: 

“How extraordinary! and the same night I had a vision in which your mistress appeared to me; the insolent priest in the temple of Hathor should have interpreted it to me.”

“And he refused? the fool! but other folks understand dreams, and I am not the worst of them—­Ask thy servant.  Ninety-nine times out of a hundred my interpretations come true.  How was the vision?”

“I stood by the Nile,” said Paaker, casting down his eyes and drawing lines with his whip through the wool of the cabin rug.  “The water was still, and I saw Nefert standing on the farther bank, and beckoning to me.  I called to her, and she stepped on the water, which bore her up as if it were this carpet.  She went over the water dry-foot as if it were the stony wilderness.  A wonderful sight!  She came nearer to me, and nearer, and already I had tried to take her hand, when she ducked under like a swan.  I went into the water to seize her, and when she came up again I clasped her in my arms; but then the strangest thing happened—­ she flowed away, she dissolved like the snow on the Syrian hills, when you take it in your hand, and yet it was not the same, for her hair turned to water-lilies, and her eyes to blue fishes that swam away merrily, and her lips to twigs of coral that sank at once, and from her body grew a crocodile, with a head like Mena, that laughed and gnashed its teeth at me.  Then I was seized with blind fury; I threw myself upon him with a drawn sword, he fastened his teeth in my flesh, I pierced his throat with my weapon; the Nile was dark with our streaming blood, and so we fought and fought—­it lasted an eternity—­till I awoke.”

Paaker drew a deep breath as he ceased speaking; as if his wild dream tormented him again.

The dwarf had listened with eager attention, but several minutes passed before he spoke.

“A strange dream,” he said, “but the interpretation as to the future is not hard to find.  Nefert is striving to reach thee, she longs to be thine, but if thou dost fancy that she is already in thy grasp she will elude thee; thy hopes will melt like ice, slip away like sand, if thou dost not know how to put the crocodile out of the way.”

At this moment the boat struck the landing-place.  The pioneer started up, and cried, “We have reached the end!”