"As much as Thou didst think of dying, fool!" retorted Dagon. "Am I a child? do I not understand that when Hiram comes to Memphis he need not come for traffic? O Thou Rabsun! Thou shouldst clean my stables a couple of years."
"Enough of this!" cried Hiram, striking the table with his fist.
"We never shall finish with this Chaldean priest," muttered Rabsun, with as much calmness as if he had not been insulted a moment before.
Hiram coughed, and said,
"That man has a house and land really in Harran, and he is called Phut there. He got letters from Hittite merchants to merchants in Sidon, so our caravans took him for the journey. He speaks Phoenician well, he pays liberally. He made no demands in particular; so our people came to like him, even much.
"But," continued Hiram, stroking his beard, "when a lion covers himself with an ox skin, even a little of his tail will stick out. This Phut was wonderfully wise and self-confident; so the chief of the caravan examined his effects in secret, and found nothing save a medal of the goddess Astaroth. This medal pricked the heart of the leader of the caravan: 'How could a Hittite have a Phoenician medal?'
"So when they came to Sidon he reported straightway to the elders, and thenceforth our secret police kept this Phut in view.
"Meanwhile he is such a sage that when he had remained some days all came to like him. He prayed and offered sacrifices to the goddess Astaroth, paid in gold, borrowed no money, associated only with Phoenicians. And he so befogged all that watchfulness touching him was weakened, and he went in peace to Memphis.
"In this place again our elders began to watch him, but discovered nothing; they divined simply that he must be a great lord, not a simple man of Harran. But Asarhadon discovered by chance, and did not even discover, he only came on traces, that this pretended Phut passed a whole night in the ancient temple of Set, which here is greatly venerated.
"Only high priests enter it for important counsels," interrupted Dagon.