Soon the messengers returned from the ferry with information that boats would be waiting there.
Pentuer went among the palms, and cried,
"Wake! wake!"
The watchful Asiatics sprang up at once, and began to bridle their horses. Tutmosis also rose, and yawned with a grimace.
"Brr!" grumbled he, "what cold! Sleep is a good thing! I barely dozed a little, and now I am able to go even to the end of the world, even again to the Soda Lakes. Brr! I have forgotten the taste of wine, and it seems to me that my hands are becoming covered with hair, like the paws of a jackal. And it is two hours to 'the palace yet.
"Happy are common men! One ragged rogue sleeps after another and feels no need of washing: he will not go to work till his wife brings a barley cake; while I, a great lord, must wander about, like a thief in the night, through the desert, without a drop of water to put to my lips."
The horses were ready, and Ramses mounted his own. Pentuer approached, took the bridle of the ruler's steed, and led, going himself on foot.
"What is this?" inquired the astonished Tutmosis.
He bethought himself quickly, ran up, and took Ramses' horse by the bridle on the other side. And so all advanced in silence, astonished at the bearing of the priest, though they felt that something important had happened.
After a few hundred steps the desert ceased, and a highroad through the field lay before the travelers.