.

SHABAKA FIGHTS THE CROCODILE.
"Where to ?" I said to Bes when we were outside the palace, for I was so broken with grief that I scarcely knew what I did.
"To the house of the lady Tiu, I think, Master, since there you must make preparations for your start on the morrow, also bid her farewell.
Oh!" he went on in a kind of rapture which afterwards I knew was feigned though at the time I did not think about it, "Oh! how happy should you be who now are free from all this woman-coil, with life new and fresh before you.

Reflect, Master, on the hunting we will have yonder in Ethiopia.

No more cares, no more plannings for the welfare of Egypt, no more persuading of the doubtful to take up arms, no more desperate battle-ventures with your country's honour on your sword-point.

And if you must see women--well, there are plenty in Ethiopia who come and go lightly as an evening breeze laden with the odour of flowers, and never trouble in the morning." "At any rate _you_ are not free from such coils, Bes," I said and in the moonlight I saw his great face fall in.
"No, Master, I am tying them about my throat.