The girl drooped her head over the lacing of her habit and made no answer.  The old woman looked at her sharply for a moment.

“Well, eat; Rachel, eat,” she urged at last.  “The marsh-hen will stand thee in good stead and thou hast a weary day before thee.”

Rachel looked at the old woman and made mental comparison between the ancient figure and her strong, young self.  With great deliberation she divided the fowl into a large and small part.

“This,” she said, extending the larger to Deborah, “is thine.  Take it,” waving aside the protests of the old woman, “or the first taste of it will choke me.”

Deborah submitted duly and consumed the tender morsel while she watched Rachel break her fast.

“What said Atsu?” Rachel asked, after the marsh-hen was less apparent.

“Little, which is his way.  But his every word was worth a harangue in weight.  Merenra and his purple-wearing visitor, the spoiler, the pompous wolf, departed for Pithom last night, hastily summoned thither by a royal message.  But the commander returns to-morrow at sunset.  This morning, every tenth Hebrew in Pa-Ramesu is to be chosen and sent to the quarries.  Atsu will send thee and me, whether we fall among the tens of a truth or not.  So we get out of the city ere Merenra returns.  He called the ruse a cruel one and not wholly safe, but he would sooner see thee dead than despoiled by this guest of Merenra’s—­or any other.  I doubt not his heart breaketh for thy sake, Rachel, and he would rend himself to spare thee.”

“The Lord God bless him,” the girl murmured earnestly.

“Where dost thou say we go?” she asked after a little silence.

“To the quarries of Masaarah, opposite Memphis.”

The color in the young Israelite’s face receded a little.

“To the quarries,” she repeated in a half-whisper.

“Fearest thou?”

“Nay, not for myself, at all, but we may not have another Atsu over us there.  I fear for thee, Deborah.”

The old woman waved her hands.

“Trouble not concerning me.  I shall not die by heavy labor.”

But the girl shook her head and gazed out of the low entrance of the tent.  Her face was full of trouble.  Once again the old woman looked at her with suspicion in her eyes.  Presently the girl asked, coloring painfully: 

“Was Atsu commanded to hold me for this guest of Merenra’s—­ah!” she broke off, “did Atsu name him?”

“Not by the titles by which the man would as lief be known,” Deborah answered grimly, “but I remember he called him ‘the governor.’”

There was a brief pause.

“Not so,” she resumed, answering Rachel’s first question.  “Atsu but overheard him say to Merenra to see to it that thou wast taken from toil and made ready to journey with him to Bubastis.”

“He can not take me by right save by a document of gift from the Pharaoh,” Rachel protested indignantly.