On reaching them he found that those blocks which appeared from a distance to weigh less than a ton, were irregular cubes ten feet high. He grumbled his disappointment and climbed upon one to take a general survey of his stoneyard. At that moment his eyes fell on a block of proper dimensions under the very shadow of the great cube upon which he stood. It was in the path of the wind from the north and was buried half its height in sand. Kenkenes leaped from his point of vantage with a cry of delight. "Nay, now," he exclaimed; "where in this is divine disfavor?" He inspected his discovery, tried it for solidity of position and purity of texture. Its location was particularly favorable to secrecy. It stood at the lower end of an aisle between great rocks. All view of it was cut off, save from that position taken by Kenkenes when he discovered it. A wall built between it and the north would bar the sand and form a nook, wholly closed on two sides and partly closed at each end by stones. All this made itself plain to the mind of the young sculptor at once. With a laugh of sheer content, he turned to retrace his steps and began to sing. Then was the harsh desolation of the hills startled, the immediate echoes given unaccustomed sound to undulate in diminishing volume from one to another. He sang absently, but his preoccupation did not make his tones indifferent. For his voice was soft, full, organ-like, flexible, easy with illimitable lung-power and ineffable grace. When he ceased the silence fell, empty and barren, after that song's unaudienced splendor. [1] Set--the war-god. [2] Thebes. [3] Amenti--The realm of Death. [4] Tuat--The Egyptian Hades. [5] Nomarch--governor of a civil division called a nome. A high office. [6] Ma--The goddess of truth. CHAPTER III THE MESSENGER Mentu returned from the session at the palace, uncommunicative and moody. When, after the evening meal, Kenkenes crossed the court to talk with him, he found the elder sculptor feeding a greedy flame in a brazier with the careful plans for the new temple to Set. Kenkenes retired noiselessly and saw his father no more that night. The next day Mentu was bending over fresh sheets of papyrus, and when his son entered and stood beside him he raised his head defiantly. "I have another royal obelisk to decorate," he said, fixing the young man with a steady eye, "of a surety,--without doubt,--inevitably,--for the thing is all but ready to be set up at On." "I am glad of that," Kenkenes replied gravely. "Let me make clean copies of these which are complete." He gathered up the sheets and took his place at the opposite table. Then ensued a long silence, broken only by the loud and restless investigations of the omnipresent and unabashed ape. At last the elder sculptor spoke. "The eye of heaven must be unblinkingly upon the divine Meneptah," he observed, as though he had but thought aloud.