that the father of my child ought not to be subservient, even to his own brother.  We often quarrelled, and had a bad time together, and life became quite unendurable, when—­about eight weeks since—­Paaker came back from Thebes, and the king gave him to understand that he approved more of my reports than of his.  From my childhood I have always been softhearted and patient; every one says I am like my mother; but what Paaker made me suffer by words and deeds, that is—­I could not—­” His voice broke, and Pentaur felt how cruelly he had suffered; then he went on again: 

“What happened to my brother in Egypt, I do not know, for he is very reserved, and asks for no sympathy, either in joy or in sorrow; but from words he has dropped now and then I gather that he not only bitterly hates Mena, the charioteer—­who certainly did him an injury—­but has some grudge against the king too.  I spoke to him of it at once, but only once, for his rage is unbounded when he is provoked, and after all he is my elder brother.

“For some days they have been preparing in the camp for a decisive battle, and it was our duty to ascertain the position and strength of the enemy; the king gave me, and not Paaker, the commission to prepare the report.  Early yesterday morning I drew it out and wrote it; then my brother said he would carry it to the camp, and I was to wait here.  I positively refused, as Rameses had required the report at my hands, and not at his.  Well, he raved like a madman, declared that I had taken advantage of his absence to insinuate myself into the king’s favor, and commanded me to obey him as the head of the house, in the name of my father.

“I was sitting irresolute, when he went out of the cavern to call his horses; then my eyes fell on the things which the old black slave was tying together to load on a pack-horse—­among them was a roll of writing.  I fancied it was my own, and took it up to look at it, when—­what should I find?  At the risk of my life I had gone among the Cheta, and had found that the main body of their army is collected in a cross-valley of the Orontes, quite hidden in the mountains to the north-east of Kadesh; and in the roll it was stated, in Paaker’s own hand-writing, that that valley is clear, and the way through it open, and well suited for the passage of the Egyptian war-chariots; various other false details were given, and when I looked further among his things, I found between the arrows in his quiver, on which he had written ‘death to Mena,’ another little roll of writing.  I tore it open, and my blood ran cold when I saw to whom it was addressed.”

“To the king of the Cheta?” cried Pentaur in excitement.

“To his chief officer, Titure,” continued Horus.  “I was holding both the rolls in my hand, when Paaker came back into the cave.  ‘Traitor!’ I cried out to him; but he flung the lasso, with which he had been catching the stray horses, threw it round my neck, and as I fell choking on the ground, he and the black man, who obeys him like a dog, bound me hand and foot; he left the old negro to keep guard over me, took the rolls and rode away.  Look, there are the stars, and the moon will soon be up.”