Dick Merriwell's Pranks Part 23

"I met him on the steamer from Smyrna to Beirut."

"What happened?"

Nadia was confused.

"Why, he-he--"

"He made love to her," d.i.c.k explained. "He asked her to marry him."

"You knew him to be a Moslem?"

"I knew nothing at the time save what he told me of himself," answered the girl. "The captain of the vessel told me that he had been banished to Damascus by the sultan on account of some political intrigue, and that he had a harem."

Ras al Had bowed.

"It is true. I know that man-I know him well! He takes good care to avoid me. I was told by my friend, who had brought the girls from the interior, that there was among them one very beautiful maiden whom he hoped to sell to Hafsa Pasha for a handsome price."

Nadia shivered again.

"To think that I could even talk with a monster who buys human beings like cattle!" she exclaimed.

"I have contemplated seeking the opportunity to meet Hafsa Pasha when he comes for the Circa.s.sian maiden," said the sheik. "It is possible that I may be there."

"It seems to me," observed d.i.c.k, "that you have no particularly friendly feeling toward Mr. Hafsa."

"I have no reason to feel kindly toward him," confessed the Arab, in a tone of much bitterness. "He once did my younger brother a great wrong.

It has been truly said that Ras al Had never forgets, and this wrong he remembers. Some day Hafsa Pasha shall suffer for it, even as he caused my brother to suffer."

"I don't like to be inquisitive," said d.i.c.k; "but my curiosity is aroused, and I wonder how he wronged your brother."

"My brother sold him a cargo of fine rugs, silks, and many precious stones. Hafsa Pasha is no true Mohammedan. He has lived much in the Western countries. Otherwise he would not have denied the price he owed for the goods he had received. He was powerful in a way, and my brother disappeared. I demanded of Hafsa Pasha what had become of my brother, but he swore he knew not. More than a year later I found my brother, a slave and dying far beyond Bagdad, even near to Yezd, which is in the Great Salt Desert. With his last words my brother declared that he believed he was carried into slavery through the plotting and command of Hafsa Pasha, who sought thus to get him out of the way. Thus, you see, Hafsa Pasha escaped payment of the just debt he owed. There was no real proof, but I am satisfied that my brother was right. I have sought diligently to obtain the proof, that I might bring Hafsa Pasha to justice. Even though I have failed in my efforts, never once have I faltered in my resolve to bring punishment on the evildoer."

There was a sort of grim earnestness and intensity in the quiet words of the old sheik, and d.i.c.k felt that Hafsa Pasha had made a very bitter and dangerous enemy.

"Well, I hope you corner the old rascal in the end," said the boy. "But we must get back to the bazaars. Dunbar and the professor will be tearing the city up in search of us."

"I will send an escort with you," said Ras al Had. "Remember my words of warning and be cautious. We may never meet again, but I feel that I have canceled my debt to you, even as I shall some day make settlement with Hafsa Pasha."

Ras al Had called four st.u.r.dy black men and bade them escort the boy and girl back to the bazaars and from thence to their hotel, in case they wished it.

Then he bade d.i.c.k and Nadia a dignified farewell.

The escort were four villainous-looking black rascals, and Nadia was afraid of them; but d.i.c.k tried to rea.s.sure her, declaring that the servants of Ras al Had were to be trusted, no matter how untrustworthy they looked.

Here and there through the crooked, winding streets they made their way.

To d.i.c.k it seemed that they had covered a far greater distance than was necessary in order to return directly to the bazaars; but he fancied the black men were taking them by a round-about course in order to avoid the vicinity of the temple where the trouble had taken place.

As they proceeded they were joined by a crooked, wizened old Turk, who seemed to know the black men. He spoke to them one by one, but not a word that he said reached the ears of the boy and girl.

Nadia shrank close to d.i.c.k, and the hand that clung to his arm trembled a little.

"I don't like that man," she whispered. "Did you see how he looked at me? I wish we were by ourselves. We do not need an escort."

Merriwell tried to rea.s.sure her, but he was not entirely easy in his mind.

Finally he spoke to one of the black men, asking why it took so long to reach the bazaars.

The fellow made some sort of an explanation in broken English, but scarcely a word of it could d.i.c.k understand.

By this time they were in a quarter of the city that added to the apprehension of the American boy. The people they pa.s.sed stared at them in a manner that was decidedly disagreeable, to say the least, and many made remarks that were plainly of an insulting nature.

Finally d.i.c.k stopped.

"Look here," he said; "we will go it alone the rest of the way. We are much obliged for your kindness, but we don't need you any more."

Then the old Turk approached him and mildly but firmly insisted that it would be quite suicidal to dismiss the escort in such a manner and in such a quarter of the city.

"When did you get into this game?" demanded the boy, somewhat warmly.

"It doesn't strike me that you have anything to say about it."

Then the crooked old fellow protested that he was a friend to Ras al Had and was working entirely in the interest of the sheik.

d.i.c.k's suspicions were redoubled, instead of allayed.

"That may be true," he said; "but we don't propose to trouble Ras al Had's friends any more. Take the whole bunch and go."

"And never again have the courage to look the great sheik in the face?"

said the Turk. "No; not until I know you are safe with your friends will I abandon you."

d.i.c.k turned to one of the black men, who seemed to be something of a leader.

"Say, you," he exclaimed, "I want you to shake yourself and get out of this right away! Understand? Take this befezzed old relic with you, too.

Git!"

The man shook his head and held up his hands as if he did not understand.

Nadia's alarm had increased. She saw that d.i.c.k was rapidly becoming very angry, and she urged him to hold his temper.

"I'll travel no farther with these men!" declared the determined boy.

The Turk said something to the black men, and they began to crowd about d.i.c.k and the girl.

Seeing this, the boy reached for his pistol.

Before he could draw the weapon, however, he was seized by the throat by a huge pair of hands, the owner of which was behind him. Another of the black rascals clutched his arm and prevented him from producing the weapon.

The hands which clasped the boy's neck were very powerful, and the ma.s.sive fingers shut off his wind in a moment. The pressure thus exerted seemed crushing flesh and bone.