The Yoke Part 42

"The Hebrews are not spoiled with couches of down," she replied.

"There are enough of the wrappings in yonder to take off the hardness, but even with the matting over them they will be gruesome things to sleep upon. They would bewitch your dreams. But mayhap ye will not suffer from one night's discomfort."

"Where go we to-morrow?"

Kenkenes did not answer immediately. Another plan for Rachel's security had been growing in his mind, and his heart leaped at the prospect of its acceptance by her.

"There is a large boat here, and we might go to On," he began at last.

"There is one way possible to save Rachel from this man as long as I live, and I would she were to be persuaded into accepting the conditions."

"Name them and let me judge."

He hesitated for proper words and his cheeks flushed. Deborah looked at him with comprehension in her gaze.

"Rachel is not blind to my love for her, and thou, too, art discerning.

Yet I would declare myself. I love Rachel, and I would take her to wife. Then, not even the Pharaoh could take her from me by law."

Deborah raised herself with difficulty, and after peering into the inner chamber to see where Rachel was, approached him softly.

"Thou lovest Rachel. Aye, that is a tale I have heard oftener than I have fingers to count upon. From the first men of her tribe I have heard it, from the best of Egypt and the worst. But she kept her heart and stayed by my side. Now thou comest, young, comely, gifted with fair speech and full of fervor. Thou lovest as she would be loved, and her heart goes out to thee, even as thou wouldst have it--in love."

Kenkenes' face glowed and his fine eyes shone with joy.

"But mark thou!" she continued pa.s.sively. "If thou wouldst save her, think upon some other way, for thou mayest not wed her. Jehovah planteth the faith of Abraham anew in Israel. In Rachel and in Rachel's house it died not during the hundred years of the bondage.

Therefore the name is G.o.dly. Of her, what would thy heart say? Hath she not beauty, hath she not wisdom, hath she not great winsomeness?

There is none like her in these days among all the children of Abraham.

To her Israel looketh for example, for, since she compelleth by her grace, those who behold her will consider whatever she doeth as good.

Great is the reward of him who can direct and directeth aright, but shall he not appear abominable in the sight of the Lord if he useth his power to lead astray? Lo! if she wed thee, to her people it will seem that she would say: 'Behold, this man is fair in my sight, and it is good for the chosen of the Lord to take the idolater into his bosom.'

There is a mult.i.tude in Israel, which, like sheep, follow blindly as they are led. Great will be the labor to engrave the wors.h.i.+p of the Lord G.o.d in their hearts, when all the powers of Israel shall strive to do that thing for them. How shall there be any success if Moses and the appointed of the Lord bid them wors.h.i.+p, while the husband or wife that dwelleth in their tent saith 'Wors.h.i.+p not'? To these, Rachel's marriage with thee would be justification and incentive to incline toward idolaters and idols. Then there are the wise and discerning who know that Rachel hath turned away from the best among her people. How, then, shall she be fallen in their sight if she wed with an idolater?

"She knoweth all these things and she keepeth a firm hold upon herself, but she hath not said these things to thee lest her strength fail her."

And thus was the mystery explained to him.

"Thou bowest down to a beetle," she went on without pausing. "Thou wors.h.i.+pest a cat; thou offerest up sacrifice to an image and conservest abominable and heathen rites. Thou art an idolater, and as such thou art not for Rachel. And yet, this further: if thou canst become a wors.h.i.+per of the true G.o.d, thou shalt take her. Never have I seen an Egyptian won over to the faith of Abraham, but there approacheth a time of wonders and I shall not marvel."

To Egypt its faith was paramount. Israel in its palmiest days was not more vigilantly, jealously fanatical than Egypt. Every wors.h.i.+per was a zealot; every ecclesiast an inquisitor. Church and State were inseparably united; law was fused with religion; science and the arts were governed by hieratic canons.

The individual ate, slept and labored in the name of the G.o.ds, and national matters proceeded as the Pantheon directed by the ecclesiastical mouthpiece.

Life was an ephemeral preface to the interminable and actual existence of immortality. Temporal things were transient and only of probationary value. The tomb was the ultimate and hoped-for, infinite abiding-place.

To the ideal Osirian his faith was the essential fiber in the fabric of his existence, to withdraw which meant physical and spiritual destruction. The forfeiture of his faith for Rachel, therefore, appealed to Kenkenes as a demand upon his blood for his breath's sake.

His plight was piteous; never were alternatives so apparently impossible.

At first there was no coherent thought in the young man's mind. His consciousness seemed to be full of rebellion, longing and amazement.

Never in his life had he been refused anything he greatly desired, when he had justice on his side. Now he was rejected, not for a shortcoming, but, according to his religious lights, for a virtue instead. His gaze searched the visible portion of the other chamber and found Rachel. In the half-light he saw that she had cast herself down against the sarcophagus, face toward the stone, her whole att.i.tude one of weary depression.

Piteous as was the sight, there was comfort in it for him. Rachel loved him so much that she was bowed with the conflict between her love and her duty. His manhood rea.s.serted itself. Love in youth bears hope with it in the face of the most hopeless hindrances. With the blood of the Orient in his veins and the fire of youth to heighten its ardor, he was not to be wholly and for ever cast down. Furthermore, there was Rachel to be comforted.

He turned to Deborah.

"Let it pa.s.s, then. Deny me not the joy of loving her, nor her the small content of loving me. If there should be change, let it be in thy prohibitions, not in our love. Enough. Art thou weary? Wouldst thou sleep?"

"Nay," she answered bluntly.

"Then I would take counsel with thee. Thou knowest the end of Israel?"

he asked.

"I know the purpose of the Pharaoh, but there is no end to Israel."

"Not yet, perchance," he said calmly, "or never. But we shall not put trust in auguries. The oppression of the people is already begun at Pa-Ramesu and the brick-fields. Ye shall not return to those dire hards.h.i.+ps. Ye can not return to Masaarah. In Memphis I offer my father's house, but Rachel refuses it. In Nehapehu there is safety among the peasantry on the murket's lands. My father lost an all-powerful signet in the tomb of the Incomparable Pharaoh at Tape, and did not search for it because he believed that Rameses had taken it away from him. The king will honor it and grant whatever pet.i.tion I make to him. If ye are unafraid to abide in this tomb for the few remaining hours of this night I shall take you to Nehapehu at dawn.

There ye can abide till I go to Tape and return. What sayest thou?"

The old woman looked at him quietly for a moment.

"Is this place safe?" she asked.

"The forty-two demons of Amenti could not drive an Egyptian into this tomb."

"How comes it that thou art not afraid?"

"I have no belief in spirits."

"Nor have we. Why need we go hence? We shall abide here till thou shalt return."

"In this place!" Kenkenes exclaimed, recoiling. "Nay! I shall be gone sixteen days at least."

"We shall not fear to live in a tomb, we who have defied untombed death daily. We shall remain here."

"This hole--this cave of death!"

"We have shelter, and by thine own words, none will molest us here. We are not spoiled with soft living, nor would we take peril to any.

Without are fowls, herbs, roots, water--within, security, meat and wine. We shall not fear the dead whom, living, Joseph rebuked. We shall be content and well housed."

"But thou art wounded," he essayed.

She scouted his words with heroic scorn. "Nay, let us have no more.

If thou canst accomplish this thing for Rachel, do it with a light heart, for we shall be safe. If thou art successful, Israel will rise up and call thee blessed; if thou failest, the sons of Abraham will still remember thee with respect."

No humility, no cringing grat.i.tude in this. Queen Hatasu, talking with her favorite general, could not have commended him in a more queenly way.

To Kenkenes it seemed that their positions had been reversed. He craved to serve them and they suffered him.

"I shall go then to-night," he said simply.

"Nay, bide with us to-night, for thou art weary. There is no need for such haste."