“’I am come to put out your eyes, as you deserve, seeing how you have treated my master.  Still I will spare you at a price.  Give me the King’s ancient white seal that opens all doors, and I will only make a pretence of blinding you.  Moreover I will cut your cords nearly through, so that when the night comes you can break them, roll into the river and escape.’

“‘Take it if you can,’ he said, ’and use it to injure or destroy that accursed one.’”

“So you took it, Bes.”

“Yes, Master, but not easily.  Remember, it was on a chain about the man’s neck, and I could not draw it over his head, for, like his hands, his throat was tied by a cord, as you remember yours was.”

“I remember very well,” I said, “for my throat is still sore from the rope that ran to the same staples to which my hands were fastened.”

“Yes, Master, and therefore if I drew the chain off his neck, it would still have been on the ropes.  I thought of trying to cut it with the knife, but this was not easy because it is thick, and if I had dragged it up on the blade of the knife it would have been seen, for many eyes were watching me, Master.  Then I took another counsel.  While I pretended to be putting out the eyes of Houman, I bent down and getting the chain between my teeth I bit it through.  One tooth broke—­ see, but the next finished the business.  I ate through the soft gold, Master, and then sucked up the chain and the round white seal into my mouth, and that is why I could not answer you just now, because my cheeks were full of chain.  So we have the King’s seal that all the subject countries know and obey.  It may be useful, yonder in Egypt, and at least the gold is of value.”

“Clever!” I exclaimed, “very clever.  But you have forgotten something, Bes.  When that knave escapes, he will tell the whole story and the King will send after us and kill us who have stolen his royal seal.”

“I don’t think so, Master.  First, it is not likely that Houman will escape.  He is very fat and soft and already suffers much.  After a day in the sun also he will be weak.  Moreover I do not think that he can swim, for eunuchs hate the water.  So if he gets out of the boat it is probable that he will drown in the river, since he dare not wade to the quay where the guards will be waiting.  But if he does escape by swimming across the river, he will hide for his life’s sake and never be seen again, and if by chance he is caught, he will say that the seal fell into the water when he was taken to the boat, or that one of the guards had stolen it.  What he will not say is that he had bargained it away with someone who in return, cut his cords, since for that crime he must die by worse tortures than those of the boat.  Lastly we shall ride so fast that with six hours’ start none will catch us.  Or if they do I can throw away the chain and swallow the seal.”

As Bes said, so it happened.  The fate of Houman I never learned, and of the theft of the seal I heard no more until a proclamation was issued to all the kingdoms that a new one was in use.  But this was not until long afterwards when it had served my turn and that of Egypt.