be instant pursuit, therefore he sought to travel as swiftly as
possible.




CHAPTER VI.


Athribis the slave bent lower--lower yet. What was this that he saw?
He was on the roof of the house in Alexandria. Through an open space
beside the wind-sail next to him, he could look into a small room
below.

In that room, his master Heraklas knelt and carefully drew a brick
from its place in the wall. Putting his hand into some hole that
seemed to be behind the bricks, Heraklas produced a roll of papyrus.
He glanced stealthily around, and, kneeling still, unrolled the
writing, and read in eager haste, one hand on the brick, ready at
the sound of any coming footsteps to thrust the papyrus quickly into
the wall again. It was a thing well pleasing to the treacherous soul
of Athribis. that he should have discovered some secret of his
master.

"What is the writing, that he hideth it there?" the slave questioned
himself.

Heraklas continued to read. Stretched on his perch, and straining
his neck to look, Athribis deemed the time long. His prying eyes
noted carefully the distance of the loose brick from the floor.