"See how the clouds are driving! Let us have horses, Pentaur, for there is not a minute to be lost." The poet ordered Kaschta to summon the people to start but the soldier advised differently.
"Men and horses are exhausted," he said, "and we shall get on very slowly in the dark.

Let the beasts feed for an hour, and the men get rested and warm; by that time the moon will be up, and we shall make up for the delay by having fresh horses, and light enough to see the road." "The man is right," said Horus; and he led Kaschta to a cave in the rocks, where barley and dates for the horses, and a few jars of wine, had been preserved.

They soon had lighted a fire, and while some of the men took care of the horses, and others cooked a warm mess of victuals, Horus and Pentaur walked up and down impatiently.
"Had you been long bound in those thongs when we came ?" asked Pentaur.
"Yesterday my brother fell upon me," replied Horus.

"He is by this time a long way ahead of us, and if he joins the Cheta, and we do not reach the Egyptian camp before daybreak, all is lost." "Paaker, then, is plotting treason ?" "Treason, the foulest, blackest treason!" exclaimed the young man.

"Oh, my lost father!--" "Confide in me," said Pentaur going up to the unhappy youth who had hidden his face in his hands.