CHAPTER XI
Revolutionist and Eavesdropper
In Kem, where agriculture was almost the only occupation, and where theox was helpful both in planting and threshing the grain, it was quitenatural that he should be revered, or at least respected as a partner inthe toil, and that a strong prejudice should prevail against his beingslaughtered for food. In fact, it was not the practice of the Kemish toeat any large animals, but they confined themselves to fish and smallfowl for meats. Nevertheless, I urged upon Hotep the necessity ofkilling some of his cattle to provide food for his miserable andpoorly-fed labourers. But he stubbornly refused to do so, saying his menwould rather eat the flesh of mules than of cattle.
Without being pressed for it, he paid me the second hundred thousandcargoes of wheat, which he bought from the Pharaoh with gold, as he haddone before. But I divided this entire quantity of grain among Hotep'slabourers, which eked out their half-rations for almost a year. Istipulated that none of this grain should be used for seed, for Ifirmly believed it would be wasted. But Pharaoh again lent the seed forplanting a third crop, insisting that the discouraged Hotep should putit in the ground, and reminding him that the only way he could get grainto pay his heavy debts was to raise a crop.
Thenocris had not been long in learning the location of our house nearher favourite gate, and it was her habit to call on us every day at thetime of the noon-day meal. She always carried and caressed her whiterabbit, and they came to us like two dumb animals to be fed. Her tall,stately figure, traversing the city on her daily journey to our house,soon became a familiar sight; and when the people began to be oppressedby hunger, they gradually overcame their early fear of us, and followedher to our door for food. We had never turned any away, for beggary wasrare enough in Kem, and no sane person ever resorted to it except in thesorest extremes of need.
Zaphnath doubtless looked with an evil eye upon the crowds that dailythronged our door to secure food. The Pharaoh rarely left his palace,and bothered little about affairs outside, and Zaphnath must have beenat the bottom of an edict which was shortly issued. Nothing that Iremember in Kem better illustrated the absolute power of the Pharaoh andthe unrestrained enforcement of his merest whim. The edict referred tothe scarcity of bread and the multitude of foreigners who were flockingto the city to secure it, and provided (ostensibly for the good of theKemish people) that no man in the city of Kem should give bread or anysort of food to any but the members of his own household. Moreover, noman should sell grain or bread at a less price than that established bythe Pharaoh for the sale of his own.
The doctor and I realized that this was aimed at no one but us. Theywere jealous of our charity, and wished to turn everybody's need totheir own profit. We scoffed at the tyranny of such an edict, but it wasthe arbitrary sort of law to which the Kemish were accustomed. Yet if wegave up our undertaking, and the unfortunate multitude went unfed for afew days, bread riots were certain to break out, and they might resultin the death or overthrow of the short-sighted Pharaoh, and the seizureof his grain. Even this would not settle the question, for the victorsmight enforce a worse monopoly of it, if that were possible.
"We must continue to feed them all outside the city,--at the Gnomons,for instance," I suggested.
"Yes, we must feed them there in a large chamber, and eat with them, sothat they may be considered members of our household," added the doctor.
Thus it happened that the paths which Hotep's mules had worn so deeplywere now thronged by a great multitude of the city's poor in theirdaily pilgrimage to the Gnomons. In an enormous chamber which we fittedup for that purpose, we served to each comer one generous meal, andthere were so many who came that this meal was going on almost all daylong. The Pharaoh fed no one but his favourites and his soldiers, and ofthese last he discharged a large number, reducing his army to a hungry,ill-fed thousand men. Those who were discharged came to eat with us, andmany of those retained would gladly have done so, had we not excludedevery one in the Pharaoh's service.
Meantime the Nasr-Nil ran lower in her banks than ever before, and gaveno signs of rising; the nightly snows were brief and evanescent, and therains, which had never been copious on Ptah, now ceased entirely. Everygreen thing gradually vanished from Kem, and Hotep's third crop rottedor lay sodden in the ground as the others had done. He knew that I hadbeen offered the opportunity to plant the Pharaoh's fields, and that Ihad not only refused, but had hoarded grain. This may have led him toconclude that I knew some reason for the famine, and I was not surprisedwhen he sought me one day at the Gnomons. He begged a strictly privateinterview with me, and I conducted him to a small room I had constructedby running two thin walls of porous stone from one Gnomon to another,and covering the enclosure with a flat roof.
"Dost thou know that thou hast linked together with thy slender wallsthe monuments of two antagonistic dynasties?" he began. "This structureto the left was built by the fifth ancestor of the present Pharaoh, intruth the first ruler of his dynasty. The structure to the right,however, is vastly older, and was built by the tenth Pharaoh of thedynasty, from which I am directly descended. My ancestors werevanquished by dint of wars, and their powers usurped by the ancestors ofthis same selfish Pharaoh, who hath not so good a right to rule as I."
I think I was born without a vestige of revolutionary spirit, for I havealways felt a respect for the institutions that are, and an allegianceto the powers that rule. I remember the distinct shock which thisutterance of Hotep's gave me. I said nothing, but he answered thesurprised look on my face.
"Thou knowest well that the entire labouring population of Kem is fed byme in my fields on one side of the city; while all the poor andunfortunate are fed by you here on the other side. What man of Kemthinks of the grand palace of the Pharaoh in the midst of the city, butto curse it? What subject who knows how the Pharaoh and his favouritesgorge themselves in luxurious plenty, while he nurses his hunger, butwould a thousand times rather pay allegiance to those who save him fromabsolute starvation? And Zaphnath, in his nightly wanderings and hisdaily errands of espionage, thinkest thou he overhears a public grumblerwho fails to curse him and his Pharaoh, and to extol the men from theBlue Star, and the unfortunate farmer, who, until now, has been able togive the people work and sustenance?"
"Doth Zaphnath spend his time in watching and spying, then?" I asked.
"Aye, that he doth! I crossed his path even now, coming through thecity, and he set at following me, but by quick turns I eluded him. He itis who by his loans and compacts hath snared and tricked me until now Iam utterly ruined, unless I can claim my rightful turn at ruling. AloneI cannot do it; with thy help I can."
"How, then, could I be of assistance to you?" I exclaimed in someastonishment, without stopping to think of the justice of his claims.
"From what I have heard of the thunder thou commandest, and thelightning thou art able to carry, it doth appear that thou couldstovercome the Pharaoh and his thousand half-starved men, who secretlyitch to change masters. Thou hast the means to do it; I have the rightto do it; and the people would unanimously applaud the doing of it. Letus strike together, then; let us seize the Pharaoh's grain and apportionit among our supporters and the needy, and when I am established asPharaoh, thou shalt be my ruler in the place of Zaphnath."
"Thou temptest me but little, O Hotep. Once before I was offered arulership in Kem which I refused. Besides, am I not bound by anagreement to loyalty and obedience to this Pharaoh?"
"Aye! Even as I am bound to come to a sure ruin; and as every man in Kemis bound to sit meekly by and starve. But is a ruler no way bound? Mayhe claim the life of his subjects for his profit? How long will theysuffer such treatment? And if we are restrained by loyalty, how longwill it be till some one else strikes the blow we stick at----?"
He was interrupted by a vigorous knocking at the door, as of one whocommands rather than entreats an opening. Who could it be? I turned tosee, but Hotep caught me by the arm.
"Before thou openest, tell me if thou wilt join me
in this undertakingfor the sake of a suffering people?"
"Nay, Hotep; it is wrong, and I will not do it. I am bound to thisPharaoh, bad as he is, and to thy dynasty I owe nothing." The rappingbegan again and more loudly now, but Hotep still restrained me.
"For half of all my fields wilt thou furnish me the grain to pay thePharaoh, and thus avert my ruin?"
"And if I would, how wouldst thou feed the men and mules and cattlethrough another year of famine, and another, and another?"
"Thou thinkest the crops will fail yet three more years!" he exclaimed,half stupefied by the thought.
"Aye, four! I know it for most certain," I answered, and the insistentknocking was vigorously renewed.
"Then I am too deep in the mire for thee or any one to pull me out. Opento this importunate knocker."
I threw open the door, and there stood the keen-eyed, angry-visagedZaphnath! How long had he been listening outside there? How much had hestealthily overheard before he began knocking? All the Kemish had needto speak doubly loud to us from Earth, for our ears were not made forthin air and its weak sounds. Moreover, Hotep had spoken throughout witha fervent declamation. But what I said in my ordinary tones was alwayseasily understood by Hotep's keen ears. Therefore it seemed quitecertain that Zaphnath had heard through the thin wall all that Hotep hadsaid, and probably none of what I said. So much the worse. He haddoubtless supplied my speeches to suit himself, and made them fit intoHotep's plotting. At any rate there was hot anger in his face when hespoke to me,--
"Thou servest the Pharaoh well, by contriving how to cross his wishes atevery point! It were well thy office were withdrawn; I have brothersabout me now who could better fill it."
"Whenever it pleaseth the Pharaoh or his all-potent ruler to abrogatehis compact with me, I am quite ready to begin where we left off when itwas made," I retorted. I did not think till afterwards that this mightserve wrongly to indicate to him the tenor of my answers to Hotep'sscheming. His eyes flashed angrily at this, yet he made no reply, butspoke to Hotep instead.
"Before the end of the clock this day, the Pharaoh requireth of theefull settlement of all thou owest him. Attempt nothing but a just andfull repayment, O most precious Hotep, for thy every act is watched andknown to us!"