Dick Merriwell's Pranks Part 32

"What's that?" he gasped.

"I have an idea it is Ras al Had," said d.i.c.k. "Stop! Stand in your tracks! Try to leave the room and I'll drop you!"

The noise ended in one great crash. Then came the soft shuffle of many unbooted feet.

"Hither, sheik!" cried d.i.c.k.

There was a struggle outside, smothered cries, a fall. Then Ras al Had, backed by several black men, together with Brad Buckhart and Dunbar Budthorne, appeared at the door.

"Still safe, boy?" said the old Arab. "I dared not wait. I had located the maiden's prison, and I sent one of my servants to bring her friends from the hotel. Then the carriage came, and I saw you enter, accompanied by him. I feared longer delay would be fatal for you. We broke down the door. It seems that we entered just in time."

Hafsa Pasha was yellow with rage.

"You old sc.u.m of the desert!" he cried. "You are behind it all! It is your trick!"

"I have not forgotten the fate of my brother, Pasha. His blood still cries aloud for vengeance."

"I'll send you to join him!"

The Turk had held the drawn knife hidden at his side. Now he made a pantherish leap toward the sheik and struck with the weapon.

Ras al Had threw up his arm. The blade was driven through the muscles of the forearm, but with a sweep the Arab sent Hafsa Pasha reeling.

At the same time he unsheathed his sword.

When the Turk recovered and sprang forward again he was met by the sheik, who drove the keen sword straight through Hafsa Pasha's body.

Brad Buckhart had reached Nadia, and she fainted in his arms.

CHAPTER XVII-A POSITION OF PERIL

There was a great uproar in Damascus. Hafsa Pasha, an exiled Turk, once a prime favorite of the sultan, had been slain in a house within the city limits.

Rumors were flying thick. There were many wild stories pa.s.sing from lip to lip. It was said that some foreigners had been concerned in the murder of the Pasha.

The Moslems were aroused, and they cried out for vengeance on the murderers. Some said that a young and beautiful girl was connected with the affair. It was said that she had tried to delude the Pasha and rob him, and that in the end her friends, aided by a number of Arabs, had slain him in the house to which the girl decoyed him.

These stories aroused the followers of "the true faith" to a high pitch of resentment against all "infidels" in the city at that time. Foreign visitors were warned against appearing on the streets, as they were almost certain to be insulted, roughly treated, and possibly slain.

The foreigners stopping at the German hotel were greatly alarmed. Many of them were planning to get out of the city as soon as possible. Some had heard the early mutterings of the storm and departed on the train for Beirut that day.

Professor Z. Gunn was in a state of great distress. He found d.i.c.k Merriwell and Brad Buckhart in earnest consultation in their room and seized each by an arm, exclaiming:

"This is what it has come to! You can see! We're still in the sultan's domain. There will be an uprising. These fanatical Mohammedans will ma.s.sacre every Christian and foreigner they can find in the place! I feel it coming. The streets of Damascus will flow with blood before night!"

"You're excited, professor," said d.i.c.k.

"Excited!" squawked the old man, nearly losing his false teeth and clapping his hand over his mouth to keep them from popping out. "Ugh!

Oogah-um! Cluck! Who wouldn't be excited? There is something to get excited over. We're almost certain to be murdered!"

"I hardly think," said Merriwell, "that the Turks will carry it that far. We are citizens of the United States, with pa.s.sports in our pockets, and the sultan would have trouble on his hands with Yankee Doodle Land if his subjects were to murder us."

"You bet your boots!" put in Buckhart.

"But the sultan isn't here to stop it," spluttered Zenas. "The Turks are infuriated over the death of Hafsa Pasha. They are urging on all Moslemites in the city. None of them are counting on the consequences.

They'll do the killing first and consider the consequences afterward."

"No one has been killed yet," said d.i.c.k. "The authorities are doing their best to hold the fanatics in check."

"By promising to apprehend and bring to justice the murderers of Hafsa Pasha. Mind, they say murderers. That means every one who was present when the man was killed. I was right here last night when Brad and Budthorne went away with those Arabs. I'm not the only one who knows about that. You were present, Richard, when Hafsa Pasha's enemy slew him. Brad was there, Budthorne was there. You're all concerned. You're every one wanted as partic.i.p.ants in the crime."

"It was vengeance," said d.i.c.k. "Ras al Had, the old sheik, slew Hafsa Pasha, and Hafsa Pasha years ago sold Ras al Had's brother into slavery.

The sheik found his brother dying in the desert, and he swore to have vengeance on the treacherous Pasha when the time came. Last night he carried out his oath and then fled from the city."

"That won't clear you, boys," a.s.serted Professor Gunn. "You were concerned in breaking into the house where the Pasha was killed."

"Sure we were," nodded Brad Buckhart.

"I didn't have to break in," said d.i.c.k, with a twinkle in his dark eyes.

"Oh, Richard," said the professor, "that was a scandalous thing! Hafsa Pasha was fooled into paying a large sum for you."

Buckhart grinned.

"He was going to add you to his harem, pard. Oh, say! that was the richest thing ever! The boys will die of laughter back at school when I tell them about it."

"Hem! haw! Haw! hem!" coughed the professor. "It looks just now as if you'll never get back to Fardale to tell anything. Drat it, boys, you don't seem to comprehend the terrible peril we're in!"

"We comprehend it, all right," a.s.serted d.i.c.k; "but we can't see any sense in getting ratty over it. Hafsa Pasha got exactly what was coming to him."

"You bet he did!" nodded the Texan.

"The right or wrong of it makes no difference to these fanatics," said Zenas. "They won't stop to ask who was right and who was wrong. They'll just go ahead and chop up the foreigners. This hotel is watched. The people in it have been warned against leaving it. A few got away on the train, but the rest of the people in the place are panic-stricken. They realize the danger. The trouble with you two reckless young rascals is that you do not realize the peril. Somebody is going to confess that two persons left this hotel in the night. They'll trace the two. It will be found out that you were present when the Pasha was killed, and your lives will not be worth a penny. Oh, it's a-- Hark! What's that?"

From the street outside came a peculiar, blood-chilling sound. It was like the low snarling of many voices, and it grew louder and louder until it became a sullen, muttering roar.

The three rushed to the window and looked out. What they saw caused the old professor to turn pale and faint.

A great mob had gathered in front of the hotel, all Turks or people of the Moslem faith, and others were coming rapidly from many directions.

The crowd was armed with clubs, sticks, stones, and so forth. A few flourished swords or other deadly weapons.

They are crying out in their indignation against the foreigners. A crooked, befezzed Turk was their leader. At sight of him d.i.c.k Merriwell uttered an exclamation.