"We will show it."

"And the place where ye get tin? Well--"

"And the place where amber is found?" continued Dagon.

"May thou perish at once!" answered the gracious Prince Hiram, extending his hand. "But thou wilt not keep up a malignant heart toward me because of those two little flat boats?"

Dagon sighed.

"I will work to forget. But--what a property I should have now if thou hadst not driven them off at that time!"

"Enough!" interrupted Rabsun; "talk of Phnicia."

"Through whom wilt thou learn of Beroes and the treaty?" asked Hiram of Dagon.

"Let that drop. It is dangerous to speak of it, for priests will be involved in the matter."

"And through whom couldst thou ruin the treaty?"

"I think--I think that perhaps through the heir to the throne. I have many notes of his."

Hiram raised his hand, and replied,--

"The heir--very well, for he will be pharaoh, perhaps even soon--"

"Pst!" interrupted Dagon, striking the table with his fist. "May thou lose speech for such language!"

"Here is a wild boar for thee!" cried Rabsun, threatening the banker's nose.

"And thou art a dull huckster," answered Dagon, with a reviling laugh.

"Thou, Rabsun, shouldst sell dried fish and water on the streets, but not mix up in questions between states. An ox hoof rubbed in Egyptian mud has more sense than thou, though thou art living five years in the capital of light! Oh that pigs might devour thee!"

"Quiet! quiet!" called Hiram. "Ye do not let me finish."

"Speak, for thou art wise and my heart understands thee," said Rabsun.

"If thou, Dagon, hast influence over the heir, that is well,"

continued Hiram. "For if the heir wishes to have a treaty with a.s.syria there will be a treaty, and besides one written with our blood on our own skins. But if the heir wishes war with a.s.syria, he will make war, though the priests were to summon all the G.o.ds against him."

"Pst!" interrupted Dagon. "If the priests wish greatly, there will be a treaty. But perhaps they will not wish."

"Therefore, Dagon, we must have all the military leaders with us,"

said Hiram.

"We can."

"And the nomarchs."

"We can have them too."

"And the heir," continued Hiram.

"But if thou alone urge him to war with a.s.syria, that is nothing. A man, like a harp, has many strings, and to play on them fingers are needed, while thou, Dagon, art only one finger."

"But I cannot tear myself into ten parts."

"Thou mayst be like one hand which has five fingers. Thou must so act that no one may suspect that thou art for war, but every cook in the heir's kitchen must want war, every barber of his must want war, all the bath men, and litter-bearers, scribes, officers, charioteers must want war with a.s.syria; the heir should hear war from morning till night, and even when he is sleeping."

"That will be done."

"But dost thou know his mistresses?" asked Hiram.

Dagon waved his hand.

"Stupid girls!" said he. "They think only about dressing, painting, and perfuming themselves; but whence these perfumes come, and who brings them to Egypt, they know not."

"We must give him a favorite who will know."

"Where shall we find her?" asked Dagon. "Ah, I have it!" cried he, stroking his forehead. "Dost thou know Kama, the priestess of Astaroth?"

"What?" interrupted Rabsun, astounded. "The priestess of the holy G.o.ddess Astaroth to be a favorite of an Egyptian?"

"Thou wouldst prefer that she were thine," sneered Dagon. "She can even cease to be high priestess when it is necessary to bring her near the court."

"Thou speakest truth," said Hiram.

"But that is sacrilege!" said Rabsun, indignantly.

"And the priestess who commits it is to die," said the gray-haired Hiram.

"If only that Jewess, Sarah, does not hinder," added Dagon, after a moment of silence. "She is waiting for a child to which the prince is attached already. If a son is born, all our plans may be thwarted."

"We shall have money for Sarah too," added Hiram.

"She will take nothing!" burst out Dagon. "That pitiful creature has refused gold and a precious goblet, which I carried to her."

"She did, for she thought that thou hadst the wish to deceive her,"

remarked Rabsun.

Hiram nodded.

"There is no cause for trouble," said he. "Where gold has not power, then the father, the mother, or the mistress may have it. And if the mistress is powerless, there is still--"

"The knife," hissed Rabsun.

"Poison," whispered Dagon.

"A knife is a very rude weapon," concluded Hiram.