The Egyptologist - Arthur Phillips [161]
CABLE. BOSTON TO RALPH TRILIPUSH, LUXOR, 12/19/22, 9:02 A.M. LEARNED FROM JP THAT DADDY IS COMING TO SEE YOU.
HE MAY BE ANGRY. PLEASE FORGIVE YOUR MF.
There, sure enough, I found your cable of yesterday. Funny! Oh, my dear, if only you had been a few days more prompt, I would not have had such a surprise last night. I was right: you did think he would still be angry.
Well, you can set your mind at rest. He and I will come back to Boston together at the end of this expedition, unless he goes off to travel a bit on his own, or he decides to stay in Egypt for a spell of tourism, or meets a lady, any number of places he would want to see. No, of course, he and I must come home together, you are expecting us both, now that we are here together. And you ask my forgiveness, my darling.
CABLE. LUXOR TO MARGARET FINNERAN,
BOSTON, 20 DEC. 1922, 11.17 A.M.
YOUR FATHER ARRIVED SAFELY. WE ARE WELL AND BOTH SEND YOU ALL LOVE. HE IS IN AWE OF OUR FIND, WILL STAY TO HELP ME FOR A WHILE. HE ASKS YOU NOT TO WORRY. YOUR MOST LOVING RALPH LOVES YOU BEYOND ALL MEASURE.
CABLE. LUXOR TO MARGARET FINNERAN,
BOSTON, 20 DEC. 1922, 11.21 A.M.
HAVE FOUND YOUR RALPH. ALL MISUNDERSTANDINGS SETTLED, PLEASE DO NOT WORRY, HE IS A FINE FELLA. WILL STAY FOR A SPELL TO WORK ON EXPEDITION UNDER HIS MAGNIFICENT TUTELAGE. YOUR FATHER, CCF.
WALL PANEL K, CONTINUED: “THE BETRAYAL OF ATUM-HADU”
Text: “You have betrayed me,” King Atum-hadu said, calm despite his anger and pain, confronting at last the Master of Largesse in the royal palace. “I am abandoned by you whom I trusted. You would turn the queen against her lord and master, turn her heart from righteousness. You have weakened my force and my armies until we cannot do battle.” The king hesitated. His pity and his love and his meek nature restrained his justified violence.
But the Master of Largesse raged, revealed ambitions, the power he craved, the envy he felt for Atum-hadu. He cried out with mischief, conflated truth and falsehood. The Master of Largesse revealed himself to be no second father to the king, but a most treacherous asp in the rush bed of an innocent child.
And in his madness, the Master of Largesse swung fists at the king and pulled a flaming torch from the wall, and swung it with fire and smoke at the earthly incarnation of Atum. “Stop, fool!” cried Atum-hadu, retreating into the shadows of the empty palace. Still the king did not wish violence against his former friend and adviser. “You do not comprehend the harm you do. You have no idea what you risk. There is still time to save all of this,” the king called from the darkness. But still the Master of Largesse sought him out and attacked like a wounded lion, and so Atum-hadu had no choice, despite his wounds from fighting the Hyksos, despite the nest of cobras gnawing at his insides, spitting hot venom out behind him.
He had no choice. This greatest of all kings lifted his war hammer, and the Master of Largesse bumped against a pillar, and the flame of his torch faltered; the king brought down his weapon only once upon his enemy’s head, and not with much force, and the Master of Largesse, taller and broader than the king, stood surprised as hot, red blood began to stream from his fat, bald temple. The king offered peace even now, but the villain swung at his king, and so Atum-hadu brought down his war hammer again and the Master of Largesse dropped the torch and Atum-hadu collected it and rained down blows upon the villain, alternating his hammer and the torch, and the heat of the torch blistered the villain’s skin and then the hammer came down and the hot blood bubbled in the heat, and the blows fell again and again on the softening head of the traitor, blow after blow upon the deflated head and the spread limbs