“And where, if only I can find a woman who does not make me ill to look on, and whom I do not make ill, I too can once more be a king, Master, and the lord of many thousand brave armed men.  I must speak of that matter to the holy Tanofir.”

“Who doubtless will know what to advise you, Bes; or, if he dies not, I shall.”

For a while we rode on in silence, each thinking his own thoughts.  Then Bes said,

“Master, before so very long we shall reach the Nile, and having with us gold in plenty can buy boats and hire crews.  It comes into my mind that we should do well for our own safety and comfort to start at once on a hunting journey far from Egypt; in the land of the Ethiopians, Master.  There perchance I could gather together some of the wise men in whose hands I left the rule of my kingdom, and submit to them this question of a woman to marry me.  The Ethiopians are a faithful people, Master, and will not reject me because I have spent some years seeing the world afar, that I might learn how to rule them better.”

“I have remembered that it cannot be, Bes,” I said.

“Why not, Master?”

“For this reason.  You left your country because of a woman?  I cannot leave mine again because of a woman.”

Bes rolled his eyes around as though he thought to see that woman in the desert.  Not discovering her, he stared upwards and there found light.

“Is she perchance named the lady Amada, Master?”

I nodded.

“So.  The lady Amada who you told the Great King is the most beautiful one in the whole world, causing the fire of Love to burn up in his royal heart, and with it many other things of which we do not know at present.”

“You told him, Bes,” I said angrily.

“I told him of a beautiful one; I did not tell him her name, Master, and although I never thought of it at the time, perhaps she will be angry with him who told her name.”

Now fear took hold of me, and Bes saw it in my face.

“Do not be afraid, Master.  If there is trouble I will swear that I told the Great King that lady’s name.”

“Yes, Bes, but how would that fit in with the story, seeing that I was brought out of the boat for this very purpose?”

“Quite easily, Master, since I will say that you were led from the boat to confirm my tale.  Oh! she will be angry with me, no doubt, but in Egypt even a dwarf cannot be killed because he has declared a certain lady to be the most beautiful in the world.  But, Master, tell me, when did you learn to love her?”

“When we were boy and girl, Bes.  We used to play together, being cousins, and I used to hold her hand.  Then suddenly she refused to let me hold her hand any more, and I being quite grown up then, though she was younger, understood that I had better go away.”

“I should have stopped where I was, Master.”

“No, Bes.  She was studying to be a priestess and my great uncle, the holy Tanofir, told me that I had better go away.  So I went down south hunting and fighting in command of the troops, and met you, Bes.”