The children were treated more as guests than as slaves, but the Egyptian was sent to the kitchen and made to work.
Pheles, the master of the house, went off that very evening, by the King’s orders, to start on another voyage. And when he was gone his wife found the children amusing company, and kept them talking and singing and dancing till quite late. “To distract my mind from my sorrows,” she said.
“I do like being a slave,” remarked Jane cheerfully, as they curled up on the big, soft cushions that were to be their beds.
It was black night when they were awakened, each by a hand passed softly over its face, and a low voice that whispered—
“Be quiet, or all is lost.”
So they were quiet.
“It’s me, Rekh-marā, the Priest of Amen,” said the whisperer. “The man who brought us has gone to sea again, and he has taken my Amulet from me by force, and I know no magic to get it back. Is there magic for that in the Amulet you bear?”
Everyone was instantly awake by now.
“We can go after him,” said Cyril, leaping up; “but he might take ours as well; or he might be angry with us for following him.”
“I’ll see to that,” said the Egyptian in the dark. “Hide your Amulet well.”