"What good are those letters, since ye have agreed with the priests?"
"What dost Thou say, worthiness?" inquired Tutmosis, starting.
"I know what I say!" replied Hiram. "Ye have obtained tens of thousands of talents from the Phoenicians, as it were for the liberation of Egypt from the power of the priesthood, and today in return for that ye are robbing and slaying us. See what is happening from the sea to the First Cataract: your common people are hunting the Phoenicians like dogs, for such is the command of the priesthood."
"Thou art mad, Phoenician! Our people are taking the temple of Ptah in
Memphis."
Hiram waved his hand.
"They will not take it! Ye are deceiving us, or ye are deceiving yourselves. Ye were to seize, first of all, the labyrinth and its treasure, and that only on the 23d. Meanwhile ye are wasting power on the temple of Ptah, and the labyrinth is lost. What is happening here? Where is mind to be found in this place?" continued the indignant Phoenician. "Why storm an empty building? Ye are attacking it so that the priests may take more care of the labyrinth!"
"We will seize the labyrinth, too," said Tutmosis.
"Ye will seize nothing, nothing! Only one man could take the labyrinth, and he will be stopped by today's action in Memphis."
Tutmosis halted on the path.
"About what art Thou troubled?" asked he, abruptly.