Dick Merriwell's Pranks Part 50

"But this is merely a taste," said Ras al Had grimly. "Do you think he would have stopped so soon with you at the post?"

"It makes no difference," returned Merriwell. "I can't see any human being beaten up that way."

"If I stop them now, you must promise me not to interfere further in his behalf."

"You will punish him in some other manner?"

"But not with the whip."

"All right; I promise."

Immediately Ras al Had checked the men who were wielding the whips. He spoke a few words to Ali Beha, who nodded.

Then the sheik turned to d.i.c.k and his companions and bade them prepare to leave the Bedouin camp.

"Before the sun sinks to rest," he said, "you shall be with your friends, both of whom are safe and well."

It was not necessary for our friends to spend any time in preparing to depart. They were ready and eager to go.

"What of Bunol?" asked d.i.c.k.

"We will leave him here with the friends he has chosen," said Ras al Had.

An hour later, when they were miles away, the old sheik turned to d.i.c.k, a grim smile on his lips.

"Your enemy will trouble you no more," he declared. "You will never again behold his face."

"Why not?" questioned d.i.c.k. "Do you mean that he will be slain?"

"No; but the fate he chose for you shall be his. He condemned you to be carried a slave into Arabia. That is to be his doom. It is the command of Ras al Had, which Ali Beha must obey."

CHAPTER XXIV-THE FATE OF A FOE

d.i.c.k and Brad were lounging in their room in the Shepherd's Hotel, Cairo, when Professor Gunn came sauntering in, with an unusually springy step, humming a tune.

"Ah, ha!" he cried, striking a pose. "You two rascals have your heads together, I see. What are you planning? What new trouble are you hatching up? Can't you rest easy for a brief time? I have enjoyed the last two weeks. Since our escape from Damascus, we have seen Alexandria, Cairo, the Pyramids, and so forth, and nothing unusual has happened. We have not once been in peril of losing our lives, and so now, I suppose, you are seeking to devise some method of getting us into danger.

Desist-I bid you desist! Already my nerves have been shattered and my const.i.tution ruined by what we have pa.s.sed through. It was pretty bad in England. It was worse in Italy. It became still worse in Greece. We had to hasten out of Constantinople to escape with our heads. But the grand climax was reached in Syria. I tell you, boys, life was becoming too strenuous for a man of my years. A few more hairbreadth escapes would have brought about my utter collapse. I should have had heart failure.

But you seemed to enjoy it. And now I suppose you are seeking to devise some means of getting us all into more trouble of the same sort. I order you to stop it!"

"It happened that we were just speaking of Miguel Bunol and his fate,"

smiled d.i.c.k. "I can't help feeling pity for the unfortunate fellow, but Brad insists that he received nothing worse than he deserved."

"That's what I do," put in the Texan, rising. "Bunol was thoroughly bad and vicious. His crookedness was certain to get him hanged in the end, unless some equally severe punishment fell upon him."

"His fate seems to be even worse than death on the gallows," said d.i.c.k.

"Well, pard, have you forgotten that he first condemned you to that fate?"

"No, but--"

"Don't try to make any excuses for that dog!" exploded the Texan. "He was the very limit when he attended school at Fardale. You know it, partner-you know about all the dirty, low-down things he did there. He was born a crook and a sneak. What was he doing when we ran across him in London?"

"Fleecing Dunbar Budthorne at cards."

"Worse than that. He was ruining Budthorne by keeping him full of booze.

He had found that Budthorne had a weakness for drink. But, in order to complete the unfortunate fellow's destruction, Bunol had doped the man with a drug that made him crave liquor constantly. A cur that would do a thing like that deserves anything that comes to him."

"I'm not going to put up an argument," said Merriwell; "but it seems to me that one of his worst tricks was the attempt to ensnare Nadia Budthorne and force her into marriage with him."

"You bet!" roared Brad. "It makes my blood boil to think of that!"

"But we fooled Bunol very handsomely and rescued both Budthorne and his sister from the rascal's grip."

"Which was no easy job. Professor, considering everything, I leave it to you if Bunol received punishment worse than he merited, when Ras al Had turned the tables on him, and commanded the Bedouins to take him into Arabia and sell him into slavery?"

"Hum! ha!" coughed Zenas. "Well, well, it may sound harsh and cruel, but I must confess that his punishment and fate has never given me a single moment of uneasiness and pity. He was bad-about the worst scoundrel I ever saw. He brought it on himself. I agree with Brad that he merited just what he got."

"Perhaps he did," admitted d.i.c.k; "but think of the awful life he will be compelled to endure as a slave to black men in the Arabian desert! It makes me shiver."

"I opine it will make him hot," said Brad, with a faint grin.

"There is no escape for him."

"Oh, yes, there is."

"What is it?"

"Death! A fellow can always find some way to kill himself."

d.i.c.k was thinking of the horrible word picture of slavery in Arabia that Miguel Bunol had painted.

"I don't like to think about it!" muttered Merriwell, his face rather pale. "Let's do something."

"There is only one thing more left for us to do in Egypt, boys," said the professor.

"What's that?"

"Why, you might take an excursion up the Nile."

"We might?"

"Yes."

"How about you?"