Kenkenes" hands fell to his sides. "Nay, now! Of a surety, this is the maddest caprice the Hathors ever wrought. In the house of thine enemy! Well for me I did not know it! I should have died from very apprehension. And all these months thou wast within sight of my father"s doors!"
"I saw him once," she said.
"And discovered not thyself! How cruelly thou hast used thyself, Rachel. He would have told thee, long ago, why I came not back."
"Aye, now I know; but, Kenkenes, I could not go, fearing--"
"Enough. I forgot. Come, let us go hence. Memphis and my father"s house await thee now."
"But I go to my people, even now," she answered, with averted face and unready words.
Kenkenes whitened.
"And leave me?" he asked quietly.
"Think me not ungrateful," she said. "I have said no words of thanks since there is none that can express a t.i.the of my great indebtedness to thee."
"I have achieved nothing for thee. Not even have I won thy freedom. I have failed. But shameless in mine undeserts, I am come to ask my reward nevertheless." He was very near to her, his face full of purpose and intensity, his voice of great restraint.
"That which once thou didst refuse to hear, thou hast known for long by other proof than words," he went on. "Let me say it now. I love thee, Rachel." Taking her cold hands he drew her back to him.
"Once I forbore," he continued, the persuasive calm in his manner heightening, "because I knew it would hurt thee to say me "nay," I told myself that I was brave, then, when the actual loss of thee was distant. But thou wilt leave me now and my fort.i.tude for thy sake is gone. I am selfish because I love thee so. The extreme is reached. I can withstand no more. Dost thou love me, Rachel?"
What need for him to wait for the word that gave a.s.sent? Was there not eloquent testimony in her every feature and in every act of that hour he had been with her? But his hands trembled, holding hers, till she told him "aye."
"Then ask what thou wilt of me," he said, the restraint gone, desperation taking its place. "I submit, so thou dost yield thyself to me. Shall I pray thy prayers, kneel in thy shrines? Shall I go with thee into slavery? Shall I learn thy tongue, turn my back on my people, become one of Israel and hate Egypt? These things will I do, and more, so I shall find thee all mine own when they are done."
But she freed her hands to cover her face and weep. Kenkenes sighed from the very heaviness of his unhappiness.
"Thou shouldst hate me, if, to win thee, I bowed in pretense to thy G.o.d," he said weakly.
Perhaps his words awakened a hope or perhaps they made her desperate.
Whatever the sensation, she raised her head and spoke with a sudden a.s.sumption of calm:
"Naught could make me hate thee, Kenkenes, but I should know if thou didst pretend. Thou art as transparent as air. Thou art honest, guileless--too good to be lost to the Bosom that must have thrilled with joy when he beheld what a beautiful soul His hands had wrought.
Few of His believers have conceived the greatness of Jehovah as thou hast, O my Kenkenes. In that art thou proved ripe for His worship.
Thou hast found His might to be so limitless that thou thinkest thyself as naught in His sight. In that hast thou gone astray. The mind is gross that can not heed the weak and small. Shall we say that the spinner of the gossamer, the painter of the rose is not fine? Shall He forget His daintiest, frailest works for His mightiest? Thou, artist and creator thyself, Kenkenes, answer for Him. Nay; not so! He, who hath an ear to the lapse between an hour and an hour, hath counted His song-birds and numbered His blossoms. For are they, being small, less wondrous than the heavens, His handiwork? Shall He then fail to hear the voice of His sons in whom He hath taken greater pains?"
She paused for a moment and looked at him. His expression urged her on.
"Does it not trouble thee when I, whom thou hast but lately known, am in sorrow? How much more then does thine unhappiness vex His holy heart, who fashioned thee, who blew the breath of life into thy nostrils! Wilt thou deny the Hand that led thee to me, here, in this hour--that cared for me during the season of distress and peril? Nay, my beloved, there is no greater virtue than grat.i.tude. It is an essential in the make-up of the great of heart--wilt thou put it out of thy fine nature?"
Again she paused, and this time he answered in a half-whisper:
"Thou dost shake me in mine heresy."
"It is but newly seated in thy credence," she said eagerly, "and is easy to be put aside--easier to cast off than was the idolatry. Put it away in truth from thee and grieve thy Lord G.o.d no more."
"Would that I could, now, this hour. We may discipline the soul and chasten the body, but how may we govern the mind and its disorderly beliefs? It laughs at the sober restraint of the will; my heart is broken for its sake, but it is reprobate still."
"And I have not won thee?" she asked, shrinking from him.
"Give me time--teach me more--return not to Goshen. Come back to Memphis with me!" he begged in rapid words, pressing after her. "No man uncovered so great a problem, alone, in a moment. How shall I find G.o.d in an hour?"
"O had I the tongue of Miriam!" she exclaimed.
"Go not yet. Wilt thou give me up, after a single effort? Miriam could not win me, nor all thy priests. I shall be led by thee alone.
A day longer--an hour--"
"But after the manner of man, thou wilt put off and wait and wait.
Thou art too able, Kenkenes, too full of power for aid of mine--"
"Rachel, if thou goest into Goshen--" he began pa.s.sionately, but she clutched him wildly, as if to hold him, though death itself dragged at her fingers.
"Hide me!" she gasped in a terrified whisper. "The servant of Har-hat!"
At the mention of his enemy"s name, Kenkenes turned swiftly about.
Two half-clad Nubians were at the river"s edge, hauling up an elegant pa.s.sage boat. It was deep of draft and had many sets of oars.
Approaching over the sand, hesitatingly, and with timid glances toward the tomb beyond, were four others. The foremost was the youth he had seen in Thebes. The next wore a striped tunic. Fourth and last was Unas.
"Now, by my soul," Kenkenes exclaimed aloud, "there is no more mystery concerning the boy." He turned and took Rachel in his arms.
"Now, do thou test the helpfulness of thy G.o.d! I have been tricked and I see no help for us. Enter the tomb and close the door, and since thou lovest honor better than liberty, let this be thine escape."
He put his only weapon, his dagger, into her hands. For an instant he gazed at her tense white face; then bending over her, he kissed her once and put her behind him.
"Go," he said.
"What want ye?" he demanded of the men.
"A slave," Unas answered evilly, stepping to the fore.
"Your authority?" The fat courier flourished a doc.u.ment and held up a blue jewel, hanging about his neck. Meneptah had forgotten his promise to return the lapis-lazuli signet to Mentu.
"Thou art undone, knave!" the courier added with a short laugh. He clapped his hands and the four Nubians advanced rapidly upon Kenkenes.
There was to be no parley.
Kenkenes glanced at the youth. He was not full grown,--spare, light and small in stature.
"I am sorry for thee, boy," Kenkenes muttered. "Thy G.o.ds judge between thee and me!"
The Nubians, two by two, each man ready to spring, rushed.
With a bound, Kenkenes seized the youth by the ankles and swung him like an animate bludgeon over his head. The attacking party was too precipitate to halt in time and the yelling weapon swung round, horizontally mowing down the foremost pair of men like wooden pins.
The weight of the boy, more than the force of the blow, jerked him from the sculptor"s hands. Kenkenes recovered himself and retreated. As he did so, he stumbled on a fragment of rock. He wrenched it from its bed and balanced it above his head.
The powerful figure with the primitive weapon was too savage a picture for the remaining pair to contemplate at close quarters. Unas had made no movement to help in the a.s.sault. He had felt the weight of the sculptor"s hand and had evidently published the savagery of the young man to his a.s.sistants. They had come prepared to capture an athletic malefactor, but here was a jungle tiger brought to bay. They retired till their fallen fellows should arise.