“It is the same,” he said. “See, all of you.”
They looked and nodded. Then he would have given it back to me but I refused to take it, saying,
“It is not well that this mighty symbol should hang about the neck of a private man whence it might be stolen or lost.”
“Or who might be murdered for its sake,” interrupted Peroa.
“Yes, Prince. Therefore take it and hide it in the safest and most secret place in the palace, and with it these pearls that are too priceless to be flaunted about the streets of Memphis at night, unless indeed——” and I turned to look for Amada, but she was gone.
So the seal and the pearls were taken and locked in the box with the impress and borne away. Nor was I sorry to see the last of them, wisely as it happened. Then I bade the Prince and his company good night, and presently was driving homeward with Bes in the chariot.
Our way led us past some large houses once occupied by officers of the Court of Pharaoh, but now that there was no Court, fallen into ruins. Suddenly from out of these houses sprang a band of men disguised as common robbers, whose faces were hidden by cloths with eye-holes cut in them. They seized the horses by the bridles, and before we could do anything, leapt upon us and held us fast. Then a tall man speaking with a foreign accent, said,
“Search that officer and the dwarf. Take from them the seal upon a gold chain and a rope of rose-hued pearls which they have stolen. But do them no harm.”
So they searched us, the tall man himself helping and, aided by others, holding Bes who struggled with them, and searched the chariot also, by the light of the moon, but found nothing. The tall man muttered that I must be the wrong officer, and at a sign they left us and ran away.
“That was a wise thought of mine, Bes, which caused me to leave certain ornaments in the palace,” I said. “As it is they have taken nothing.”