"In the court of the last inn before the labyrinth. He will be there in the morning."
"How does he look?"
"He has red hair and beard," answered Lykon.
"Well?" inquired Mefres of Herhor.
"Thou hast good police, worthiness," replied Herhor.
"But the overseers of the labyrinth guard it poorly!" said Mefres in anger. "I will go there to-night with Lykon to warn the local priests. But if I succeed in saving the treasure of the gods, Thou wilt permit me to become its overseer, worthiness?"
"As Thou wishest," answered Herhor with indifference. But in his heart he added: "The pious Mefres begins at last to show his claws and teeth. He desires to become only overseer of the labyrinth, and his ward, Lykon, he would make only pharaoh! Indeed, to satisfy the greed of my assistants the gods would have to make ten Egypts,"
When both dignitaries had left the vault, Herhor, in the night, returned on foot to the temple of Isis where he had a dwelling, but Mefres commanded to make ready a couple of litters on horses. In one of these the younger priests placed the sleeping Lykon with a bag on his head; in the other the high priest himself took his place and, surrounded by a party of horsemen went at a sharp trot in the direction of Fayum.
On the night between the 14th and 15th Paofi the high priest Samentu, according to the promise given Ramses, entered the labyrinth by a corridor known to himself only. He had in his hand a bundle of torches, one of which was burning, and on his back he carried tools in a small basket.
Samentu passed very easily from hall to hall, from corridor to corridor, pushing back with a touch stone slabs in columns and in walls where there were secret doors. Sometimes he hesitated, but then he read mysterious signs on the walls and compared them with signs on the beads which he bore on his neck.