Dick Merriwell's Pranks Part 12

"Our purpose is to see the great underground cistern sometimes called the Underground Palace."

"Effendi, go not! Keep from there!" Mustapha showed great concern.

"Why should we not go there?" questioned the professor. "It is one of the great sights."

"You haf for your life some valuement?"

"Certainly; but what can there be dangerous about a visit to the Underground Palace?"

"Maybe you haf not hear it, effendi?"

"Have not heard what?"

"One time some Engleeshman go there. They nefer come back."

"What happened to them?"

Mustapha made a gesture with his hands indicative of vanishing into the air.

"Who answer it the question?" he said.

"Well, well!" muttered Zenas. "What do you think about this matter, boys?"

"My interest is aroused now," answered d.i.c.k. "I want to see this mysterious place."

"That's right, pard. I'm sure some wrought up to see it myself. Of course we'll go."

"Too young to haf wisdom," said Mustapha, with a gesture toward the boys.

"Come on, professor!" cried d.i.c.k. "If this dragoman will not act as guide for us, we can easily secure another."

Instantly Mustapha hastened to a.s.sure them that he would be only too glad to act as their guide; but that they should pay him before visiting the Underground Palace, as they might never return, in which case he would lose his honestly earned due by neglecting to collect ahead.

They agreed to pay him in advance, and soon they set out from the hotel in Pera, eager to see the mysterious place that was said to hold so much of mystery and danger.

In the afternoon sunshine Stamboul was magnificent when seen from a distance. But when they had crossed the Golden Horn and plunged into the city all its impressiveness vanished. At intervals they came upon some splendid mosques, but mosques were far more impressive when seen from the proper distance.

Mustapha knew his business, and he conducted them to the place where they could descend and inspect the Underground Palace, but he declined to enter with them. For that purpose he called another man, with close-set, shifty eyes and a thin-lipped mouth.

"This dragoman, Bayazid," he said. "He tak' you."

"Is he trustworthy?" asked the professor, with a slight show of nervousness.

"You not find one more so, effendi."

So Bayazid, or "Pigeon," as he was called in English, was engaged to show them the Underground Palace.

"I haf very good boat, effendi," he declared.

"Whatever is that?" asked Buckhart. "Do we have to take a boat?"

"You will see," answered Zenas.

The entrance was somewhat like that of a sewer, but there were stone steps leading down into the darkness of the place. The guide found and lighted two torches, which it seemed were kept for the use of those who wished to visit the Palace.

"Say, this is some boogerish!" said Brad, as they found themselves in a dark and damp cemented pa.s.sage.

"The old city was built above a huge system of cisterns," explained the professor. "Their purpose was to guard against a famine of water in time of war. Some of the old cisterns are dry now and are used by silk spinners. We shall visit one that still contains water."

"But I thought we were going to see a palace," said d.i.c.k, in disappointment.

"You shall see one-so called."

The pa.s.sage echoed to their tread, while their voices came back hollowly, as if hidden imps were mocking them.

But the boys were quite unprepared for the spectacle that suddenly met their gaze. They came from the pa.s.sage into a mighty vaulted chamber, stretching away into an unknown distance and filled with a shadowy maze of marble columns, row on row. The floor of this wonderful place was smooth as a mirror and seemed black as ebony, save where the light of the torches fell on it. There it glittered, and gleamed, and shimmered.

Exclamations of astonishment and wonder broke from the lips of the two lads. The professor grasped them, one with either hand, and stopped them abruptly.

"We can't go farther on foot," he said.

"Eh? Why not?" asked the Texan, in surprise. "Look at that floor!

Wouldn't it be great to dance on! It's smooth as gla.s.s and--"

"You would get your feet wet if you attempted to dance on that,"

declared Zenas.

"What? Why-why, it's water!"

"Exactly."

"But-but it looks black everywhere except where the light strikes directly on it."

"Because no other ray of light reaches this place."

d.i.c.k stooped and dipped his hand in the water, which reached to their very feet.

"Well, this is worth seeing!" he declared.

"This was constructed by Constantine more than fifteen hundred years ago," explained the professor. "Think, boys, what you now behold is the work of man, yet it remains practically the same as when constructed fifteen centuries ago."

"It looks like a partly submerged cathedral," murmured d.i.c.k. "One can fancy all its worshipers and priests as drowned in that flood of black water. In fancy I seem to see their restless spirits floating above the surface of the lake, away, away yonder in the unknown distance. How large is it, professor?"

"There are three hundred and thirty-six of those marble columns, arranged in twenty-eight rows. I fancy the real reason why Mustapha refused to enter here is because of the many legends and tales told concerning the place. It is said that these vaults often echo to hollow laughter, and that the place is haunted by the ghosts of murdered sultans of past ages, whose places were usurped by the very monsters who intrigued to bring about the murders. Some claim that the spirits of the beautiful women destroyed by jealous sultans are doomed to float forever here above the surface of this buried lake, and that occasionally one of them is seen by a visitor for a single fleeting instant, then goes wailing and sobbing into the black distance."

"Well, by the great horn spoon, I don't know that I blame Mustapha for not coming here!" exclaimed Brad. "It's the most spooky old hole I ever struck."

At this juncture Bayazid inquired if they wished to take a boat and venture out a short distance on the water.