Dick Merriwell's Pranks Part 53

They soon reached the top of the hill and found they were just in time to witness the glories of an Egyptian sunset.

The view from that elevation was most impressive. Below them, and near at hand, rose a great ma.s.s of delicate and graceful minarets, glittering in the last rays of the sun. The strange Oriental city huddled beyond, and then, as far as the eye could reach, wound the silver Nile, its sh.o.r.es on either side green with verdure.

Away to the west the sun was sinking into a violet sea of light. There lay the mighty desert, brown, barren, desolate-the desert with its dreaded sand storms and simooms.

On the edge of this desert they could see three mighty shapes, silhouetted against the sky-the Pyramids. They knew that for at least five thousand years those mysterious and marvelous monuments had been standing thus, casting their lengthening shadows across the eastern waste, as the sun sank to its nightly rest in the bosom of the desert.

Silence fell on them. They watched the sun go down, and it seemed that the orb of day had sunk in hopeless despair to rise no more. They were impressed by the mightiness of the universe, and they felt themselves mere ants amid the marvels of creation. It was a place and time to give them a just understanding of their own insignificance.

CHAPTER XXVI-SOME INTERESTING CONVERSATION

The sun was gone, blue shadows gathered, and night came stalking up from Syria and Arabia beyond the isthmus. So absorbed had our friends been by the splendid spectacle, that they had failed to give heed to their immediate surroundings.

Nadia was at Brad's side. Suddenly she clutched his arm with a nervous movement.

"What is it?" he asked, seeming to awaken from a trance.

"That man! Look there!"

She made a gesture, and he looked in the direction indicated. Standing at an angle of the wall, where the shadows were upon him, was the same man to whom she had called his attention on the steps of the hotel.

"He has followed me here!" she declared nervously.

"Oh, he has, has he?" growled the Texan, his face flushing with anger.

"Well, I sure am going to interview him some, right away."

He brushed off her hand and started toward the mysterious stranger.

Immediately the unknown turned and disappeared beyond the corner of the wall.

d.i.c.k had seen the stranger, also, and he joined Buckhart at once, saying:

"Come ahead, Brad. It's time to find out if he's following us round."

Budthorne had hastened to his sister's side.

The boys ran to the point of the wall. When they reached the spot, they could see nothing of the man.

"He can't be far away," said d.i.c.k.

A few moments later they discovered the man walking hastily down the hill. Unless they chose to run after him, there was no prospect of overtaking him.

"Better let him go this time," advised d.i.c.k.

"All right," muttered the Texan; "but he is causing me to wax wroth some, and I'll give him a game of talk the next time I find him d.o.g.g.i.ng us. Who do you reckon he is, pard?"

"I am unable to answer the question," admitted d.i.c.k; "but, by his appearance, he seems to be a Turk."

"That's right. I don't fancy being spied on by a Turk, just at present.

We're not far enough away from Damascus. He may be one of the sultan's secret police, sent after us for that little affair in which we were recently involved."

"I thought of that myself. I'm not anxious to be arrested and carried back to Damascus."

"I should say not! That would be mighty bad business. Still, I don't think--"

d.i.c.k checked his companion with an exclamation. Another man had joined the one who was rapidly descending the hill. Both boys obtained a glimpse of this second person before both disappeared into the shadows below.

"Did you see him, Brad?" asked d.i.c.k. "Did you get a fair view of him?"

"Just a look, partner, but I swear there was something a heap familiar about him. The way he carried his head-his walk-- I've seen that galoot before."

"And so have I. Shall we attempt to overtake them? I'd give something to get a look at his face."

But they decided it was too late, as there was little chance of overtaking those men in the narrow and gloomy streets of Cairo. Besides, in order to pursue the mysterious ones, they would be compelled to abandon Nadia and her brother.

So they returned and found Dunbar and Nadia waiting, and a trifle nervous.

"It's all right," declared d.i.c.k diplomatically. "Of course, the man had a right to come up here and view the sunset. He's gone."

"I'm glad," said the girl. "But it is growing dark. Let's return to the hotel right away. I do not fancy being out in the streets of Cairo after dark."

They descended the hill and found the donkeys and the boy drivers waiting for them. Two of the boys were asleep, their hands pillowed on the bodies of their reclining donkeys.

"Poor little fellows!" murmured Nadia, sympathetically. "They should be home now. It's a shame to keep them out so late."

The boys woke up promptly on hearing the voices of their companions. Our friends mounted, and away they went, through the dim streets of the queer, old city, the boys running after the trotting donkeys and giving an occasional twist at the tails of the little beasts.

Both d.i.c.k and Brad kept a sharp lookout for possible trouble, but the return to the hotel was made without incident.

Brad lingered to talk with Dunbar and Nadia, in Budthorne's room. Not that the pleasures of a chat with Budthorne attracted him so much, but there was again a complete understanding between himself and Nadia.

d.i.c.k sought Professor Gunn, but failed to discover the old man. He then descended to look for him below.

On the way down, the sound of laughter coming from a suite of rooms, the outer door of which was slightly ajar, attracted his attention. He had heard Zenas laugh that way before, and he knew the old pedagogue was in there.

d.i.c.k stepped to the door, lifting his hand to knock. He paused, his hand uplifted.

"He! he! he!" again sounded that well-known laugh. "A harem containing a dozen pretty girls! My! my! But you must have been a gay boy in those days, colonel."

"Well, suh," said a mellow, yet somewhat husky voice, "yo' see, suh, a man had to have some enjoyment in this infernal country. I was young, suh, and it was just after the Civil War in America. Scores of officers from the South entered the Egyptian service. Some swore nevah again to set foot on American soil. We felt that we were exiles. But we made the khedive's army spruce up wonderfully. The pay was good, and all that; but the cursed heat, the monotony, the homesickness, made us all reckless, and set us to longing fo' diversion. I'll guarantee, suh, that the most of us found our only diversions in gathering wives fo' our harems. Those boys were connoisseurs in female beauty, and the wives of many of them would have created a sensation, suh, in New York, London or Paris."

"He! he! he!" again laughed Zenas. "Oh, you rascal! Oh, you sly dog! But it must have been pleasant. What did you do with your harem when you got tired and decided to leave the Egyptian service and the country?"

"Why, I sold it, of course."