And they come with gifts in their hands as tribute to Pharaoh, in whose heart is the wisdom of the gods, and on his lips their truth.' 'That is all very well,' said Pharaoh, 'but where are the gifts ?' The children, bowing as well as they could in their embarrassment at finding themselves the centre of interest in a circle more grand, more golden and more highly coloured than they could have imagined possible, pulled out the padlock, the Necessaire, and the tie-clip.

'But it's not tribute all the same,' Cyril muttered.

'England doesn't pay tribute!' Pharaoh examined all the things with great interest when the chief of the household had taken them up to him.

'Deliver them to the Keeper of the Treasury,' he said to one near him.

And to the children he said-- 'A small tribute, truly, but strange, and not without worth.