Kenkenes admitted with a grim smile that the great powers of the world and the wild were against him. But Rachel's face came to him as comfort—the memory of it when it was tender and yielding—and with a lover's buoyancy he forgot his sorrows in remembering that she loved him. He dropped the anchor and, lying down in the bottom of his boat, dreamed happily into the dawn.
During the day he landed for supplies at a miserable town of pottery-makers, leaving his boat at the crazy wharves.
When he returned the bari was gone. A negro, the only one near the river who was awake, told him that a dhow, laden with clay, in making a landing had struck the bari, staved in its side, upset it and sent it adrift.
The mischance did not trouble Kenkenes.
After some effort he aroused a crew of oarsmen, procured a boat, and continued at once to Thebes.
[1] Khu-aten—Tel-el-Amarna.
CHAPTER XXII
THE FAN-BEARER'S QUEST
At sunset on the day after the festivities at the Lady Senci's, Hotep deserted his palace duties and came to the house of Mentu. He had in mind to try again to persuade his friend from his folly, for the scribe was certain that Kenkenes was once more returning to his sacrilege and the Israelite.
The old housekeeper informed him that the young master was not at home, though he was expected even now.