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286 ued moving on, all the way to Egypt. There he was received by the Pharaoh—the last Pharaoh of the tenth northern dy- nasty, who a few years later (in 2040 B.C.) was overthrown by the princes and priests of Thebes in the south. Two years before, in 2042 B.c. by our calculations, Abram returned to his outpost in the Negev; he was now in command of a retinue of cavalrymen (probably fast camel riders). He returned in time to deflect an attempt, by a coalition of "Kings of the East," to invade the Mediterranean lands and reach the Spaceport in the Sinai. Abram's mission was to guard the Spaceport's approaches, not to take sides in the war of the Easterns with the kings of Canaan. But when the deflected invaders overran Sodom and took Abram's nephew Lot captive, he pursued them with his cavalry all the way to Damascus, rescued his nephew, and retrieved the booty. Upon his return he was greeted as a victor in the environs of Shalem (the future Jerusalem); and the exchanged salutations carried a lasting significance: And Melchizedek, the king of Shalem, brought forth bread and wine, for he was a priest unto the God Most High. And he blessed him, saying: "Blessed be Abram unto the God Most High, Possessor of Heaven and Earth; and Blessed be the God Most High who hath delivered thy foes unto thy hands. And the Canaanite kings, who were present at the cere- mony, offered Abram to keep all the booty for himself, and hand over just the captives. But Abram, refusing to take any- thing, said thus under oath: "Thereby lift my hand unto Yahweh, God Supreme, Posessor of Heaven and Earth: Neither a thread nor a shoelace shall I take—nothing that is thine." "And it was after these things"—after Abram had carried out his mission to Canaan to protect the Spaceport—"that DIVINE ENCOUNTERS