The prince sprang up from his chair.
"And dost them believe that he drank himself to death?"
"I must believe, for I have no proof that they killed him."
"But if I look for proof?" burst out the prince.
He ran through the room, and snorted like an angry lion. When he was somewhat quieted, Tutmosis added,
"Seek not for proof where it is not to be discovered, for Thou wilt not find even witnesses. If any man strangled that laborer at command of the nomarch, he will not confess; the laborer himself is dead, and will not say anything; besides, what would his complaint against the nomarch amount to? In these conditions no court would begin to investigate."
"But if I command?" asked the viceroy.
"In that case they will investigate and prove the innocence of Sofra. Then Thou wilt be put to shame, and all the nomarchs with their relatives and servants will become thy enemies."
The prince stood in the middle of the chamber and pondered.
"Finally," said Tutmosis, "everything seems to show this, that the unfortunate Bakura was a drunkard or a maniac, and, above all, a man of foreign blood. If a genuine Egyptian in his senses were to go without pay for a year, and be clubbed twice as much as this man, would he dare to break into the palace of the nomarch and appeal to thee with such an outcry?"