CALLING ON THE MUMMIES
For a full mile they made the red-headed boy run. Then, at Dan's
command, a camel was made to kneel, and the perspiring coxswain was
permitted to climb the animal's hump.
"That--that was a mean trick," growled Sam. "I'll even up with you for
that, Dan Davis!"
Dan laughed happily.
"You needed the exercise. It will put you in good shape for climbing the
Pyramids."
A few minutes more of riding brought them to the feet of these
awe-inspiring monuments, and with the aid of their guides the jackies
scrambled up the sides of the Great Pyramid.
"We must see the tombs on the inside of the Pyramid, fellows," cried Dan
after they had descended by skips and jumps the long steps of the
Pyramid.
"Yes," cried Sam. "I promised to give the regards of the stay-at-homes
to the mummies."
The guides lighted long wax tapers, and they entered the dark,
ill-ventilated passage leading into the great pile of masonry.
"Whew!" said Dan. "I don't wonder mummies have that dark-brown color,
if they have baked in this oven a few hundred years. Guide, is there any
one in here except our party?"
"No. Why?"
"I saw two men, I thought, in one of those passages to the right."
"It's nothing but a mummy ghost," suggested a shipmate.
All at once they emerged into a great high-domed chamber, the walls of
which were covered with strange carvings.
"What station is this?" questioned Dan.
"The King's Chamber," replied the guide.
"What is the King's name?" he asked.
"Not know. Dead maybe two thousand years."
"Two thousand years? He must have known our boatswain," said Hickey
solemnly.
The others began asking questions, and Dan, walking to the other side of
the chamber, began examining the inscriptions on the walls. He was
standing near a corridor when suddenly he became conscious of a shadow
coming between himself and the light. He started, then peered into the
long corridor.
"What are you looking for?" demanded Sam, who had come up behind Dan at
that moment.
"I think there is some one out there," he replied. "I saw shadows
again."
"Do you really think some of those old kings are nosing around here?"
Dan laughed softly.
"I'll risk their getting out. I think some of our fellows are playing
tricks on us. What do you say to our turning the tables on them? We'll
hide in the corridor, and give them a scare when they creep up to see
where we are."
Davis and Hickey crept along on their hands and knees, chuckling softly
over the scare they were about to give their mates.
"Sh-h-h-h," warned Dan suddenly, in a low voice. "I heard something."
"Was--was it the boys?"
"I don't know. I heard some one whisper, and it wasn't in English,
either. Be careful."
The passageway had curved abruptly, going off in another direction, but
in the intense darkness they did not notice this.
Suddenly Dan touched his friend's arm.
"The light in the King's Chamber has gone."
"Call out."
"No, no. We will turn and go back. We were foolish to try a thing of
this sort."
Keeping close together, the boys began crawling rapidly. All at once Dan
stopped.
"We surely should have reached the King's Chamber before this," he
declared.
"Maybe we have gone on past it?"
"I think not. We should have recognized the place had we passed through
it."
"Then there's only one thing to do--whoop her up until the mummies turn
over."
"I guess you are right."
Dan uttered a loud hello. There was no answer. Sam shouted, with no
better result.
"Sam, we've been left alone in the dark this time--we're lost in the
Great Pyramid."
Meanwhile the other bluejackets had finished their tour and had emerged
into the bright sunlight.
While taking up a collection to settle with the guide, Spunk McGraw, a
friend of the Battleship Boys, suddenly looked up.
"See here, where's that red-headed boy?" he demanded.
"He's hidden so he won't have to hand out when the plate's passed,"
answered a joking voice.
"And Dan Davis is missing, too," said McGraw, with a scared look on his
face.
"They're not going back on the train," one of the jackies volunteered.
"They said they were going back part way on the camels."
"Oh, that's it, then," answered McGraw in a relieved tone. "Let's go to
the station and find out what time we can get a train."
And no more thought was given to Dan and Sam until the boatswain's mate
found them missing at rollcall back in Cairo that evening.
"Did they come back with you?" the mate questioned.
"No, sir," replied Spunk McGraw. "I think they were going back to the
place where we change cars by way of the camels."
"They may have been held up on that camel ride, sir," spoke up one of
the men, "but they may be on the train following. You can't keep Davis
and Hickey in one place against their will for very long."
A ripple of laughter ran along the line at this, but when the next train
came wheezing in with no Battleship Boys, the mate looked grave.
"It is my opinion that those men are lost in the Pyramid," he announced
with solemn emphasis. "I want ten men to go back with me to find them.
The rest of you will leave for Suez under McGraw's command on the
midnight train."
Within half an hour he had procured an automobile and two Pyramid
guides, and with his detail of jackies had departed for the Pyramids.
Back in the Pyramid the Battleship Boys were still lost and in utter
darkness.
"What's the matter with our following the passageway back to the King's
Chamber?" asked Sam Hickey.
"For the reason, Sam, that we do not know where the chamber is."
"I guess you're right," he agreed.
"Come along; we'll try it in this direction," said Dan. "Keep hold of my
hand. We do not want to get separated."
The lads made their way along through corridor after corridor. They
could see nothing save now and then when they lighted a match.
"Hark!"
Dan gripped his companion's arm sharply.
"I heard something again."
Their voices had dropped to whispers.
"It might have been some animal, and we have nothing to defend ourselves
with," said Dan Davis.
"We have our knives," answered Sam.
"Yes; we'll use them if we meet any four-footed enemies. Strike another
match, please."
Sam did so at once. Instantly something happened. As the match flared
up, blinding them for the moment, Sam leaped into the air.
"Wow!" he howled. "Look ou----"
Dan uttered an exclamation before Sam had finished the sentence.
Something had given him a violent push from behind. At the same instant
Dan Davis was served in a similar manner. Instead of jumping, however,
he whirled with the intention of grappling with his assailant, whoever
he might be.
Another push sent him reeling backward. He grasped wildly for something
to check his fall, but his hands slipped along the smooth rock.
"I must be going all of a mile a minute," thought the boy. "Poor Sam.
Poor----"
Suddenly he felt his body leave the sloping rock and shoot into space.
Then all at once everything became a blank.
Dan landed heavily and lay still, but in a few minutes he began to
struggle with himself, fighting off an almost irresistible inclination
to lie back and go to sleep again. A few minutes of this and he sat up.
"Oh, Sam! Hello, Sam!" he shouted.
"Hello yourself," answered a voice so close to Dan that he could not
repress a start.
"Where are you?" cried Dan eagerly.
"That's what I've been trying to find out myself," answered the
red-headed boy.
"Are you injured?"
"Injured? Not I. I'm going to strike a match. That's about the only
thing about me that hasn't been struck sixteen times to the inch since I
started in to shoot the chutes."
Lighting the match, he uttered an exclamation of delight. On one side of
the place was a heap of rubbish. They touched a match to it, and a
bright blaze rewarded their efforts.
"How did you happen to fall over, Sam?" Dan questioned.
"Just as you did, I guess. I was pushed."
"You know I told you some one was dogging our footsteps earlier in the
afternoon."
For a moment Davis sat lost in thought.
"Let us push on, Sam," he finally said. "We may find our way out, and
our mates can find us in one place as well as in another, if they find
us at all."
Dan took one of the glowing sticks from the fire to light the way, and
started out.
"We'd better follow along on this level. We shall never get back the way
we came."
"All right; I'm ready."
"Sam, I think we're going down instead of up," said Dan after a few
minutes.
"What's the odds? We might as well bury ourselves deep while we are
about it."
Both lads laughed at the red-haired boy's grim joke, neither one
thinking of whining over their dangerous situation.