would be very late before anyone else knew that he was running away. He would be beyond the borders before they suspected that he was not in his quarters, or somewhere around the palace.
CHAPTER 10
A ll night he traveled and thought. He found his unformed wishes taking shape. He was wishing for a country he had never seen. He was seeing visions of a nation he had never heard of where there would be more equality of opportunity and less difference between top and bottom.
Out under the late moonlight he could see chickens roosting along the ridgepoles of barns with the arrogant tail feathers of roosters sticking out against the sky, and that brought his thoughts around to the hundreds of questions he wanted to ask of Nature. It gave him a freshening hope, as he fled for his life from Rameses. “The man who interprets Nature is always held in great honor. I am going to live and talk with Nature and know her secrets. Then I will be powerful, no matter where I may be. And now that I am free from wars and warfare, I shall go to Koptos. Not at this very moment, for if I am found in Egypt they will kill me sure. Wait a little while and grow whiskers and they won’t know me from the next one, especially if I stay away from certain vicinities. I am going to answer the questions that Mentu raised in me. Is there a box in the middle of the river at Koptos? Does it contain a book? Was the book written by the god Thoth, whose messenger is the Ibis? Is it guarded by a snake? Is the snake really deathless?These were the questions that hurt him to hold inside him because the saw-teeth of his curiosity and impatience gave him no peace. From now on his sword should cease to think for him. He would spend the rest of his life asking Nature the why of her moods and measures. As he sailed swiftly down the river Nile, he saw many things in the water and along the banks which he would like to investigate and which he now regretted to leave. He realized now how Mentu had aroused his thought, and that once you wake up thought in a man, you can never put it to sleep again. He saw that he had merely been suppressing himself during his military period. That was over and gone. Everybody has some special road of thought along which they travel when they are alone to themselves. And his road of thought is what makes every man what he is.
Bright and soon three mornings later, Moses was standing beside the Red Sea. What he wanted was a large boat to cross over into Asia. He talked to first one man and another about renting a boat, but with no success. It was early for the rest of the world, but late so far as the fishermen were concerned. Three hours before every available boat had gone out to catch fish. So Moses finally sat down to wait until a seaworthy craft should come in with its load, or without one as the luck might be. So that is how he got to talking with the old man who said he was too old to go out with his boy any longer.
While he waited he noticed what he had not noticed before—that whoever was about the water front had left off what they were doing and were collected about him. They were respectful, even reverential to a degree, but everybody’s thoughts and actions were influenced by his presence. Under the circumstances it began to worry him a little. Several of the men withdrew into a knot down the beach a little way. Then the old man crept up to him.
“Suten-Rech,” he said in a low tone, “them men is figuring out how to make some money out of you.”
“They do? And how do they plan to do it?”
The old man scratched his head and regarded Moses shrewdly. “We don’t see a Prince in a hurry often.”
“How do they know that I am a Prince? And why do they think I am in a hurry?”
“All anybody needs to do is to look at you and they would know you was a Prince. The way you act proves that you’re in a big hurry to cross over on the other side. So them men—yonder, Suten-Rech—done agreed not to find you a boat until
CHAPTER 10
A ll night he traveled and thought. He found his unformed wishes taking shape. He was wishing for a country he had never seen. He was seeing visions of a nation he had never heard of where there would be more equality of opportunity and less difference between top and bottom.
Out under the late moonlight he could see chickens roosting along the ridgepoles of barns with the arrogant tail feathers of roosters sticking out against the sky, and that brought his thoughts around to the hundreds of questions he wanted to ask of Nature. It gave him a freshening hope, as he fled for his life from Rameses. “The man who interprets Nature is always held in great honor. I am going to live and talk with Nature and know her secrets. Then I will be powerful, no matter where I may be. And now that I am free from wars and warfare, I shall go to Koptos. Not at this very moment, for if I am found in Egypt they will kill me sure. Wait a little while and grow whiskers and they won’t know me from the next one, especially if I stay away from certain vicinities. I am going to answer the questions that Mentu raised in me. Is there a box in the middle of the river at Koptos? Does it contain a book? Was the book written by the god Thoth, whose messenger is the Ibis? Is it guarded by a snake? Is the snake really deathless?These were the questions that hurt him to hold inside him because the saw-teeth of his curiosity and impatience gave him no peace. From now on his sword should cease to think for him. He would spend the rest of his life asking Nature the why of her moods and measures. As he sailed swiftly down the river Nile, he saw many things in the water and along the banks which he would like to investigate and which he now regretted to leave. He realized now how Mentu had aroused his thought, and that once you wake up thought in a man, you can never put it to sleep again. He saw that he had merely been suppressing himself during his military period. That was over and gone. Everybody has some special road of thought along which they travel when they are alone to themselves. And his road of thought is what makes every man what he is.
Bright and soon three mornings later, Moses was standing beside the Red Sea. What he wanted was a large boat to cross over into Asia. He talked to first one man and another about renting a boat, but with no success. It was early for the rest of the world, but late so far as the fishermen were concerned. Three hours before every available boat had gone out to catch fish. So Moses finally sat down to wait until a seaworthy craft should come in with its load, or without one as the luck might be. So that is how he got to talking with the old man who said he was too old to go out with his boy any longer.
While he waited he noticed what he had not noticed before—that whoever was about the water front had left off what they were doing and were collected about him. They were respectful, even reverential to a degree, but everybody’s thoughts and actions were influenced by his presence. Under the circumstances it began to worry him a little. Several of the men withdrew into a knot down the beach a little way. Then the old man crept up to him.
“Suten-Rech,” he said in a low tone, “them men is figuring out how to make some money out of you.”
“They do? And how do they plan to do it?”
The old man scratched his head and regarded Moses shrewdly. “We don’t see a Prince in a hurry often.”
“How do they know that I am a Prince? And why do they think I am in a hurry?”
“All anybody needs to do is to look at you and they would know you was a Prince. The way you act proves that you’re in a big hurry to cross over on the other side. So them men—yonder, Suten-Rech—done agreed not to find you a boat until
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