"This priest is Samentu. He is a great sage, but needs money, and he is very ambitious. And since the high priests degrade him he will overturn the order of priests; for he knows many secrets oh, many!"
Ramses meditated. He understood that that priest was a great traitor, but he estimated the magnitude of the service which the man might render.
"Well," said the pharaoh, "I will think of this Samentu. But now let us suppose for the moment that it is possible to make such a canal; what profit shall I have from it?"
Hiram raised his left hand, and counted on his fingers.
"First, holiness, Phoenicia will give thee five thousand talents of unpaid tribute; second, Phoenicia will pay for the right of doing this work; third, when the work begins we will pay one thousand talents of yearly rent, and besides as many talents as Egypt furnishes us tens of laborers; fourth, for every Egyptian engineer we will give to thee, holiness, a talent a year; fifth, when the work is finished Thou wilt give us the canal for one hundred years, and we will pay for that one thousand talents yearly. Are those small gains?" inquired Hiram.
"But now, today," asked Ramses, "would ye give me those five thousand talents tribute?"
"If the treaty is made today we will give ten thousand, and we will add three thousand as an advance of rent for a three years' period."
Ramses meditated. More than once Phoenicians had proposed the cutting of this canal to the rulers of Egypt, but they had always met the unbending resistance of the priesthood. The Egyptian sages explained to the pharaoh that that canal would expose the country to inundations from the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. But Hiram asserted that such a thing would not happen; the priests knew that it would not.
"Ye Phoenicians," said the pharaoh, after a long time, "promise to pay one thousand talents yearly for one hundred years. Ye say that that canal dug in the sand is the best affair in the world. I do not understand this, and I confess, Hiram, that I am suspicious."
Hiram's eyes flashed.