Kitabı oku: «Dick Merriwell's Pranks: or, Lively Times in the Orient», sayfa 9
“Well!” gasped the little man, in astonishment.
“Well!” exclaimed the tall man, bewildered.
“Gentlemen,” said the stranger, “I assure you that I know perfectly well the complete truth of all I have said. They are traveling under false names, having somehow secured the passports of the parties they pretend to be. The only thing of truth that I heard fall from that boy’s lips as I listened was his statement that the girl is innocent. She, however, with her brother, who is not strong and may be easily influenced, has fallen into the clutches of these three rascals. Without doubt they sought to use the girl as a tool to trap the Pasha who was murdered. I doubt not that they led the Pasha to believe there would be no trouble in case he seized the girl and made her an inmate of his harem. I believe it probable that they secured a large sum of money from the Pasha – and then they murdered him.
“Now, gentlemen, if, instead of giving up the girl to the mob, you will get together, seize the real culprits, tell the maddened people the truth, and surrender them, you will be doing your duty, and nothing more.”
The listeners gasped again.
“Most amazing!” said the little man.
“Quite so,” agreed the tall man.
“Who are you?” questioned the first.
“Your name,” demanded the second.
The stranger made a graceful gesture.
“My name matters little to you. I will not speak it at present. Those rascals are wholly unaware that I am here. I do not care to have them discover it just now. Listen! The mob clamors again. The doors will be beaten down soon, and then nothing can save us. If you know these people here, lose no time in informing them of the real cause of this riot. Tell them that the guilty ones are sheltered beneath this roof. Propose to them that the three scoundrels be surrendered, for it is better that three such common wretches should be slain than that a whole hotel full of innocent people should die.”
“Quite right!” exclaimed the small man.
“Perfectly right,” agreed the tall man.
CHAPTER XVIII – IN A DEADLY TRAP
Dick returned to his friends.
“Where have you been, pard?” asked Buckhart.
“Just outside,” was the answer. “Wanted to see what was going on in the hotel.”
“I opine the whole bunch is some frightened.”
“Without doubt. They have good reason to be – Something doing!”
This final exclamation was caused by the clear, ringing sound of a bugle, coming from the streets below.
Dick rushed to the window, followed by the others.
Looking out, they saw a body of mounted soldiers coming swiftly down a street leading to the front of the hotel. They were riding at a gallop, the hoofs of their horses clattering rhythmically. An officer with drawn sword was leading them.
“The sultan’s soldiers!” exclaimed Dick. “At last the governor has awakened. Without doubt he remembers Ahmad Pasha, and he does not care about losing his own head.”
“Oh, the soldiers are coming to drive the mob away!” exclaimed Nadia, in relief.
“Perhaps so,” muttered Brad. “I sure hope so.”
“Why, is there any other reason why they should come?”
“I don’t know.”
Deep down in his heart, however, the Texan feared the troops were coming for quite another purpose. He feared the ruling Pasha had ordered them to proceed to the hotel and take possession of the ones suspected as having had a hand in the killing of Hafsa Pasha. If this were true, although the troops might keep them from the vengeance of the mob, it was likely that in the end they would be punished with death, or in some other manner, as accomplices of the murderer.
Entertaining these thoughts, Brad watched with the greatest anxiety the movements of the troop of soldiers. He was relieved to some extent when the soldiers charged into the mob, the officer in command ordering the gathering to disperse.
Professor Gunn literally capered for joy.
“We’re saved! we’re saved!” he cried. “The governor doesn’t dare permit another riot!”
Then the old man seemed to realize that he was losing his dignity, whereupon he stopped dancing, straightened up, threw out his thin chest, and thrust one hand into the bosom of his coat.
“To tell you the truth, my friends,” he said, “I have not been genuinely alarmed at any stage of the affair, for my judgment told me the governor would see fit to interfere before anything really serious happened.”
Dick laughed.
“My dear professor,” he said, “it is not possible you fancy any of us thought you alarmed in the slightest. We knew better than that. You are a man of iron nerves.”
“Hum! haw!” coughed Zenas. “Perhaps not exactly iron-nerved, but I flatter myself that I have unusal acumen and judgment, and therefore I knew the affair would be checked in case the governor had time to act before the mob succeeded in doing any real damage.”
In the street below the soldiers were charging up and down, scattering the crowd. The mob dispersed with great reluctance, for it resembled a pack of hungry wolves that had scented a feast.
The crooked old Turk even dared stand and defy the cavalrymen, but finally the officer in charge chased him off, belaboring him across the back with the flat of his sword.
“You deserve something worse than that, you old wolf!” muttered Dick.
Nadia was greatly relieved.
From the window they watched until the soldiers had quite succeeded in dispersing the mob, and it began to seem that the danger was over.
Then they discovered that the mounted men were being divided into squads, and soon these squads began to patrol the neighboring streets.
Dick again left the room, was gone fifteen or twenty minutes, and returned with the information that the officer had given orders that no one was to enter or leave the hotel until further notice. The guests were practically prisoners, and this seemed to indicate that the danger was not over.
Nadia’s nerves were in a sad condition from the strain and the relapse. Her brother conducted her to her room. He then returned and, accompanied by the professor, proceeded to interview the German proprietor of the hotel.
Dick and Brad were left alone. The door was standing slightly ajar.
“This business had been a plenty exciting, partner,” said the Texan; “but I opine she’s practically over now.”
“I don’t know about that,” said Dick, shaking his head.
Buckhart was astonished by the grave manner of his companion.
“Don’t know?” he cried. “Why, the mob has been scattered and the soldiers are guarding the house.”
“Yes, the soldiers are guarding the house, and orders have been given that no one shall leave it.”
“That is so none of the inmates shall fall into the hands of the mob.”
“Is it?”
“Isn’t it?”
“I’m not sure. I would feel easier if I knew that was the real reason why no one will be permitted to leave.”
“Then you have an idea that there may be another reason?”
“I have.”
“I don’t opine I just understand.”
“I’m afraid we are prisoners here, held until agents of the governor can make an investigation and find out who was present last night, when Hafsa Pasha met his end.”
The Texan sprang up and stood in an attitude of mingled surprise and consternation.
“Great tarantulas!” he exclaimed. “There may be something in that!”
Dick nodded.
“There may be,” he said. “If there is – ”
“You and I may be arrested and thrown into prison any time.”
“Nadia, also.”
“Thunder! Dick, I’m afraid you’ve hit the truth. What will happen if you are right?”
“We’ll find ourselves in a very nasty scrape; but it will be hardest on Nadia. Think of the poor girl thrown into – ”
“I can’t think of it! I decline! Pard, we must find a way to get her out of this scrape. If the governor really sends officers here to investigate, we’ll be pointed out, and then it will be too late. What can we do?”
“We seem to be caught like rats in a trap,” admitted Dick.
A low laugh sounded outside the door, which was pushed open, and into the room softly stepped the dark stranger who had spoken with the tall man and the short man in the hall below.
“Yes, Dick Merriwell,” this fellow said, with malignant satisfaction, “you are caught, and there is no way for you to escape. When the officers come I shall take great pleasure in pointing you out to them. The time of my revenge and triumph has come at last.”
“Miguel Bunol!” cried Dick, in astonishment.
It was, in truth, the young Spaniard who had once attended school at Fardale – the fellow who had caused the Budthornes so much trouble in England and Scotland.
Since leaving Italy Dunbar and his sister had taken precautions to throw Bunol off their trail, in case the venomous rascal persisted in seeking to follow them. Their success had led them to believe they would see no more of him.
But in some manner Bunol had traced them to Damascus and overtaken them there.
Dick’s eyes glittered as they fell on the fellow, while every muscle in Buckhart’s body seemed to become taut, and the Texan crouched a little, like a person ready to make a leap.
Bunol closed the door and placed his back against it, facing the two boys he hated. He stood there, surveying them insolently, deep satisfaction in his face and bearing. His manner seemed to say: “I am master of the situation at last, and now I propose to crush you.”
“Woof!” finally burst from Buckhart, like the snort of a startled wild beast. “It sure is that same onery coyote, partner!”
“It would be well for you if you restrained your tongues and called no hard names,” said Bunol.
“The varmint is plenty bold, Dick,” said Brad.
Merriwell recovered command of himself, and he seemed quite calm and undisturbed, although inwardly a tempest was raging.
“So you have followed us here, Mig Bunol?” he said.
“As you see,” retorted the Spaniard, “I am here. You thought yourselves very clever, but you could not fool me for long.”
“We certain fooled you a plenty for a while,” muttered Buckhart.
“What do you think you can accomplish by chasing us round the world?” questioned Dick. “Thus far you have met with nothing but failure.”
“My time of triumph has now come. Up to this day fortune has favored you. Now it has turned against you.”
Bunol showed his white teeth in a pantherish grin, that caused the sharp ends of his tiny, pointed mustache to curl upward more than usual.
“Do you think so?”
“I know it.”
“How do you know it?”
“You are in a trap from which there is no escape.”
“You mean – ”
“You were concerned in the murder of Hafsa Pasha.”
“We were not!”
“You were present when he was killed, and that is enough. Oh, I knew it before I stood outside this door and listened to your talk just now.”
“Eavesdropper!” snarled Buckhart.
“Rage and growl!” laughed the Spaniard. “Little good it will do you! You are like the wolf that snaps with its teeth at the steel trap into which it has stepped. I heard you talking, but it told me nothing new. I will tell you something. You have made the right guess about the soldiers. They are guarding this house in order that you may not escape until the Pasha causes your arrest. That will not be long. The proper officers will come very soon. Then I shall point you out to them. Once you have been arrested for that crime no power on earth can save you from being beheaded. How like you the prospect, my insolent American friends?”
“So you propose to help the Turks in taking us?” questioned Dick.
“I shall help them by pointing you out. In return, I hope I may secure the privilege of being present when you are beheaded. It will give me great joy to stand near and watch the executioner shave off your heads. Ha, ha, ha!”
Buckhart’s strong fingers closed in an intense grip that made his fists like two knobby iron balls.
“Mebbe you won’t be in condition to do any talking when the officers come,” muttered the Texan.
“Oh, I am watching you,” declared Bunol. “I have a pistol ready for use. If you force me, no hesitation will I have in using it.”
“Why did you come here?” asked Dick. “Why didn’t you hasten to send information to the governor?”
“Because that was not necessary, and I came here to enjoy the pleasure of witnessing your disturbance in the face of certain death.”
“You came to gloat over us?”
“Have it so, if it pleases you. Why shouldn’t I? Many times you have gloated over me.”
“Never! Never yet have I gloated over a fallen enemy.”
“But you have been triumphant, and I have suffered defeat.”
“Which you deserved, for you are a scheming snake in the grass!”
“You say so, but you are not my judge. Many times have you brought disgrace and shame upon me, until I have come to hate you with a burning hatred. But for you, Nadia Budthorne would now be my wife.”
“And such a fate would be more terrible than death for any refined girl. When the officers come, you will denounce her if you denounce us. You cannot help it, for it is said that a girl was concerned in the affair that ended with the death of Hafsa Pasha. Are you wretch enough to send Nadia to her death?”
Bunol shrugged his shoulders.
“Perhaps if she were to swear to marry me – ”
“Which she’ll never do, you dog!” panted Buckhart.
“Oh, is it you who think you will secure her, you uncouth creature from a land of savages!” cried Bunol. “Bah! It’s a pity you cannot see yourself as you are, hulking, awkward, dull-faced, slow-witted, unpolished, swaggering, conceited – a worthy product of that raw portion of your miserable country called the West. You Americans of the East are more than enough bad; but those who come from the West are sickening to one of culture and refinement.”
Buckhart took a step toward the insulting speaker, but Bunol whipped out a pistol.
“Stay!” he hissed. “One more step will be the last you will ever make!”
At Dick’s elbow was a writing desk, on which lay a heavy metal paper weight.
While Bunol’s attention was given almost wholly to Brad, Merriwell’s fingers closed quickly on the paper weight. Suddenly, with a motion that was amazingly rapid, he lifted his hand and launched the paper weight at the Spaniard.
Bunol attempted to dodge, having seen the sudden jerking movement of Merriwell’s arm.
He was a second too slow.
The paper weight struck him squarely between the eyes, and he dropped unconscious to the floor.
Like a panther, Dick crossed the floor in one great bound and fell on Bunol, his fingers closing on the fellow’s windpipe.
Breathing hoarsely, Buckhart was on hand to render assistance.
“Great work, pard!” complimented the excited Texan. “He had me under his gun, and I couldn’t do a thing.”
He picked up Bunol’s pistol, which had dropped from the fellow’s fingers.
“This may add to our armament,” he observed. “We’re likely to need all the guns we can handle pretty soon.”
Dick had discovered by this time that there was no need to choke the Spaniard, for the paper weight had fixed the fellow so he would offer no resistance.
“Bring me the rope we found in the wardrobe yonder, Brad,” directed Merriwell, “and bring it quickly. We must tie this fellow up good and solid before he recovers.”
The other boy hastened to bring the rope.
“Looks like somebody used this for a trunk strap,” he observed. “Lucky they left it in the wardrobe.”
Dick directed Brad to cut the rope into pieces of certain length, and with these pieces he proceeded to tie Bunol in such a manner that it would be difficult for the fellow to do much more than wiggle a toe on recovering consciousness.
“He’ll be liable to howl some when he comes round,” observed Brad.
“Not when I have finished with him,” asserted Dick. “Hand me that clothes brush.”
Buckhart did so.
Dick took the brush across his knee and broke off the handle in a twinkling. Then, with the aid of his comrade’s knife, he soon fixed the handle so it would serve as a gag, and this he fastened between the teeth of the Spaniard.
As he was completing this task, Dick saw that Bunol was coming round. The fellow’s breast heaved, he opened his eyes, and for the time being he seemed completely bewildered and at a loss to understand what had happened.
“Now, what will we do with him, pard?” questioned Brad.
“We’ll chuck him into that closet,” decided Dick, at once.
A step sounded outside the door.
Instantly Brad leaped to the door and set his shoulder against it.
“Go on, Dick!” he palpitated. “Get Mig out of the way somehow, while I hold the door.”
Merriwell stooped to lift his enemy. As he did so his eyes met those of Bunol, and in the dark orbs of the helpless Spaniard he saw a murderous look of hatred.
On Bunol’s forehead there was a swelling, but otherwise he seemed unharmed.
Dick had been compelled to jerk the paper weight at the fellow with a quick, snapping movement. Had he thrown the thing with all his strength the rascal’s skull might have been fractured.
Unheeding the venom in Bunol’s glance, Dick lifted the fellow’s limp body and carried him quickly across the room, thrusting him into the small closet. He placed the helpless wretch in a sitting position on the floor, with his knees curled up to his chin, and then closed the closet door.
Some one was rapping on the door Brad was holding.
“Let them in,” directed Dick coolly.
Buckhart stepped away from the door.
Professor Gunn entered, followed by a huge black man, wearing immense brass rings in his ears.
“This man wants to speak with you, Richard,” said the old pedagogue. “He has a message for you.”
Dick was very much surprised.
“A message for me?” he said. “Who from?”
“You should know,” said the black man, in astonishingly good English. “Look at me. We have met.”
“Why, it’s Assouan!” cried Merriwell.
“I am Assouan,” bowed the black man.
“But here – what are you doing here? How did you get here?”
“I came from my master, the great sheik.”
“But he is in flight. He – ”
“He sent me.”
“Why?”
“I bring a message from him.”
“What is it?”
“He fears greatly that you will find yourself in great peril here in Damascus, and that you may be slain.”
“His fears seem to be well-founded. Is that all the message?”
“He commanded me to return to the city, seek you and learn if you were indeed in danger.”
“I certainly appreciate the sheik’s thoughtful concern. We are indeed in danger, and by the time you can return, and so inform him, it will be too late for him to render any assistance, should he be so inclined.”
“The noble sheik gave me instructions, in case I should find you in peril. He bade me suggest that you should attempt to escape from the city in disguise, at which you are exceeding clever.”
“A great idea!” Merriwell exclaimed. “It might be done.”
Then his face fell.
“But I am not the only one in danger, and I have no disguise save that which I used last night. I might make myself up like an English or American girl, but little good it would do, for the mob is aroused against foreigners, and a girl could not pass unmolested through the streets. Besides that, how could I get out of this hotel? The place is guarded.”
“As to that,” said Assouan, “I can show the way to leave the hotel unobserved, even as I entered it.”
“You did have to come in, that’s a fact. How did you pass the soldiers on guard?”
“There is a way. I know it.”
“And you can show us how to leave this place without being stopped by the soldiers?”
“I can.”
“That’s a plenty interesting!” muttered Buckhart.
Professor Gunn was greatly excited.
“Then show us – show us!” he fluttered. “We’ll be glad enough to get out.”
“It would do you no good as you now are, for you would be compelled to appear on the open streets, and the people of the city are greatly aroused against foreigners. You would be attacked on the street. Better the mercy of the soldiers than that of the mob.”
“Then you cannot help us, after all!”
“My instructions were to aid only the boy who restored life to the noble sheik when he was struck by the iron chariot of the infidels.”
“Well,” said Dick, “if Ras al Had fancied I would desert my friends in order to save myself, he made a mistake.”
“If you remain, you may be beheaded.”
“Unless there is some way for the whole of us to get out, I shall remain and take my chances.”
Assouan regarded Dick with evident surprise.
“It is better that one should escape than that all should be slain,” he declared.
“In order to escape, I would have to obtain some complete disguise that would enable me to pass along the streets of the city without molestation. How could I thus disguise myself?”
“Abraham, the Jew, who did so once before, could attend to that.”
“Abraham? But I could not go to his place of business.”
“I could bring him here.”
Dick’s eyes began to shine.
“Can you do that, Assouan?” he asked.
“So I have said.”
“Wait a moment; let me consult with my friend.”
He drew Buckhart aside.
“Brad,” he said, “I have an idea.”
“Fire her at me, partner,” invited the Texan.
“If old Abraham can do the trick – if he can bring disguises enough – why should not we all make up and endeavor to get away before we are apprehended by order of the governing Pasha? Old Abraham will do almost anything for money. Let him bring disguises for us, for the professor, and for Budthorne and Nadia. He ought to know how to rig us up so we can pass through the streets without bringing the fanatics down on us. I’ll instruct Assouan to bring the old Jew here in a hurry.”
“It’s worth trying, Dick. Anything to save Nadia!”
Merriwell turned to the black messenger.
“Is Abraham a man of education?” he asked.
“He has traveled,” was the answer.
“Do you know if he can read English?”
“I do not know, but it may be that he can.”
“Wait.”
Dick strode to the desk, seized a pad of paper and a pencil and wrote rapidly. In a few moments he had finished.
“What are you trying to do, Richard?” asked the old professor, who had been nervously walking about the room. “You have not sought my advice.”
“There is no time for that now, professor,” declared the boy.
He thrust the folded paper into one of Assouan’s huge hands.
“Carry that to Abraham without delay if you wish to aid me,” he directed. “Let no other person see it. Time is precious.”
The black man bowed low and hurried from the room.
“It is possible that the preservation of our lives depends on the success of this scheme,” said Dick. “I wrote urging Abraham to come and bring disguises for five of us, including one woman, explaining briefly that we desired to escape by passing through the streets of the city in open day.”
“No use! no use!” exclaimed Zenas hopelessly. “It is the wild project of harebrained youth. We cannot escape that way. If we try it, we’ll simply fall into the hands of the enraged populace and be torn to pieces.”
“Well, we’ll make the attempt if Abraham comes and rigs us out for it,” said Dick decisively. “I hope he’ll come. I know a message from Ras al Had will influence him some, and on top of that I have promised to pay him a liberal sum. If he disappoints us, our fate will lie in the hands of the American consul, and it’s likely he may be unable to do a thing for us.”
