"What is Dagon for?" wondered the prince. "He is not near my court; is he dead?"
"Dagon is in Pi-Bast, but he spends whole days with other Phoenician merchants in the temple of Astarte in prayer and penance."
"Why such devotion? Is it because that I was in a temple that my banker thinks he too should take counsel of the gods?"
Tutmosis turned on the stool.
"The Phoenicians," said he, "are alarmed; they are even crushed by the news."
"About what?"
"Some one has spread the report, worthiness, that when Thou shalt mount the throne all Phoenicians will be expelled and their property confiscated."
"Well, they have time enough before that," laughed Ramses.
Tutmosis hesitated further. "They say," continued he, in a lowered voice, "that in recent days the health of his holiness may he live through eternity! has failed notably."
"That is untrue!" interrupted the prince, in alarm. "I should know of it."