The dignitaries left the prison and returned to the upper hall. The nomarch, seeing that the high priest Mefres kept his eyes cast down and his lips fixed, asked him,-- "Art thou not rejoiced, holy man, at these wonderful discoveries made by our chief?" "I have no reason to rejoice," answered Mefres, dryly. "The case, instead of being simplified, has grown difficult. Sarah asserts that she killed the child, while the Phœnician woman answers as if some one had taught her--" "Then dost thou not believe, worthiness?" interrupted the chief. "No, for I have never seen two men so much alike that one could be mistaken for the other. Still more, I have never heard that there exists in Pi-Bast a man who could counterfeit our viceroy,--may he live through eternity!" "That man," said the chief, "was in Pi-Bast, at the temple of Astaroth. The Tyrian Prince Hiram knew him, and our viceroy has seen him with his own eyes. More than that, not long ago, he commanded me to seize him, and even offered a large reward." "Ho! ho!" cried Mefres, "I see, worthy chief,--I see that the highest secrets of the state are concentrating about thee. But permit me not to believe in that Lykon till I see him." And he left the hall in anger, and after him Sem, shrugging his shoulders. But when their steps had ceased to sound in the corridor, the nomarch, looking quickly at the chief, asked,-- "What dost thou think?" "Indeed," said the chief, "the holy prophets are beginning to interfere in things which have never been under their jurisdiction." "And we must endure this!" whispered the nomarch. "For a time only," sighed the chief. "In so far as I know men's hearts, all the military, all the officials of his holiness, in fine, all the aristocracy, are indignant at this priestly tyranny. Everything must have its limit." "Thou hast uttered great words," said the nomarch, pressing the chief's hand, "and some internal voice tells me that I shall see thee as supreme chief of police at the side of his holiness." A couple of days passed. During this time the dissectors had secured from corruption the remains of the viceroy's son; but Sarah continued in prison, awaiting her trial, certain that she would be condemned. Kama was sitting, also, confined in her cage; people feared her, for she was infected with leprosy. It is true that a miracle-working physician visited her, repeated prayers before her, gave her everything to drink, and gave her healing water. Still, fever did not leave the woman, and the bronze-colored spots on her cheeks and brows grew more definite. Therefore an order came from the nomarch to take her out to the eastern desert, where, separated from mankind, dwelt a colony of lepers. On a certain evening the chief appeared at the temple of Ptah, saying that he wished to speak with the high priest. The chief had with him two agents, and a man covered from head to foot in a bag.