At his repressed but high-pitched voice, Kathi, son of Kathi, swung about, startled for an instant out of his wonted calm and immobility. He turned to close the door before replying. “As thou sayest, Holiness, I have succeeded. ’Tis but a few short minutes since Thi and Menna stood where thou standest at this very moment. The Syrian shed real tears above the body of that poor wench there. To her ’twas Hanit, doubt not.” Kathi smiled somewhat sadly as he gazed down upon the figure at his feet: “In death the Lady Meryt’s striking resemblance to Hanit, our beloved Queen, was most pronounced. And, following my work upon the head, the Lady Meryt’s own mother could hardly have chosen between them. “I noted a hint of suspicion in Menna’s eyes the moment he entered the room. Yet, this instantly vanished, when once he had looked upon the body. He smiled. Menna no longer fears that Hanit will take vengeance for the murder of her son. To Menna, as to Thi, the body is that of Hanit. Their triumph seems to them assured. Hanit and Wazmes, her son, are dead. Thi’s son reigns! The Syrian sun-god triumphs over Amen!” Enana, Chief Magician of the Temple of Amen, rubbed together his lean and shriveled hands. His experiment seemed well on the road to success. A Pharaoh might set aside one queen for another; the late Pharaoh had done that. He might depose a queen of the line of the sun-god Ra in favor of Thi, a Syrian, a commoner. Beguiled by the latter’s crafty wiles he might close his eyes to the murder of an inconvenient son or so. ’Twas harem work that! But, to strike at the great God Amenra whom Enana served—that was a different matter! Thi, the Queen-Mother, was a foreigner, an idolator. The present Chancellor was also a Syrian, Yakab of Rabbath. Was it to be wondered at that the present Pharaoh, Thi’s son, was daily urged to overthrow the gods whom Egypt worshiped in favor of Aton, the _Syrian_ god? But what then would become of the great gods Amen, Ptah and Khonsu; of Osiris, Isis, Horus, and a host of deities worshiped through countless ages along the valley of the Nile? And last, but well to the fore in Enana’s vision, what would become of the innumerable priests, himself included, who served those powerful gods? Yes! Menna could strangle Hanit’s only son, the lawful heir; Thi could seek to poison Hanit! But, touch the cult of Amen of Thebes and, at a word, the great priestly hierarchy throughout Egypt would rise as one man. So, at least, thought Enana. So too Huy, First Prophet of Amen, his brother, and so Kathi, the Embalmer, their hireling. If it was to resolve itself into a clash between Court and Temple (and, certainly, recent events had pointed to a rupture) Enana and the Prophets of Amen were ready.