He had once seen an eclipse of the sun: the day had been fine and bright and suddenly everything grew dim and grey, as though covered with a layer of ash, and all was dull, numb and dead. It was the same now. "It's my liver," he thought, "and Yubra, too."
"I must put an end to it," he said aloud. "Go and fetch him!"
"Whom, master?" Inioteph asked, looking at him in surprise.
Nibituia too raised her eyes in alarm.
At that moment Dio and Pentaur came into the garden from the roof of the summer house: Zenra had told her mistress that Tuta had sent a boat for her.
As they were passing the shelter by the big pond, Khnum called to them:
"I am just going to judge Yubra, my slave. You be judges, too."
He made Pentaur sit down beside him and Dio sat on the mat by Nibituia.
Yubra, with his arms tied behind his back, was brought in and made to kneel before Khnum. He was a little old man with a dark wrinkled face that looked like a stone or a lump of earth.
"Well, Yubra, how much longer are you going to sit in the pit?" Khnum asked.