sprang from the laughter.

"A few days after I gave Assa's grandchild to the gardener, and told him
the sixth toe had come off; I had made a little wound on his foot to take
in the bumpkin. So Assa's grandchild, the son of the Mohar, grew up as
the gardener's child, and received the name of Pentaur, and he was
brought up in the temple here, and is wonderfully like Assa; but the
gardener's monstrous brat is the pioneer Paaker. That is the whole
secret."

Ani had listened in silence to the terrible old woman.

We are involuntarily committed to any one who can inform us of some
absorbing fact, and who knows how to make the information valuable.
It did not occur to the Regent to punish the witch for her crimes; he
thought rather of his older friends' rapture when they talked of the
singer Beki's songs and beauty. He looked at the woman, and a cold
shiver ran through all his limbs.

"You may live in peace," he said at last; "and when you die I will see to
your being embalmed; but give up your black arts. You must be rich, and,
if you are not, say what you need. Indeed, I scarcely dare offer you
gold--it excites your hatred, as I understand."

"I could take thine--but now let me go!"

She got up, and went towards the door, but the Regent called to her to
stop, and asked:

"Is Assa the father of your son, the little Nemu, the dwarf of the lady