A MAD VENTURE.
Frank was determined. Professor Scotch objected in vain. He appealed to
Ephraim, and the Yankee lad said:
“I’ll stick ter Frank. I don’t keer where he goes!”
Frank set about pleading the professor to succumb, and he was persuasive
to a degree that astounded Ephraim. Indeed, it seemed that the boy
almost hypnotized Scotch and led him to consent to follow the old Moors
who were carrying Igela away.
The professor himself was amazed when he gave in, and he remained in a
dazed condition while Frank called the proprietor of the hotel and
bargained for three horses, which he instructed the professor to pay
for.
The horses were quickly furnished, and Scotch paid for them, muttering a
feeble remonstrance, but feeling unable to resist the power of the boy’s
steady eyes, which never left his face for an instant.
Frank had triumphed, but he showed no exultation. His face was grim and
set, and it seemed that he had formed a resolution from which nothing
could turn him.
In company with the professor and Ephraim, he went out to seek
information. He learned that two caravans had lately started for Fez,
either of which might be overtaken by nightfall by hard riding.
That was what he wished to know.
Ali Mustaf and Ben Ahmet would travel with one of those caravans. Frank,
Ephraim and the professor would travel with the other. Frank would bide
his time, and he felt sure he would be able to meet Igela and speak with
her.
It was a wild and desperate project at which a man would have hesitated,
but Frank was a youth to whom nothing seemed impossible.
Back to the hotel they went. While they ate, the horses were ordered
saddled and brought around. Frank had looked them over, and found them
tough little Arab horses, looking as if they could travel and stand
hardship. That satisfied him.
After eating, Frank went to his trunk, from which he took a brace of
revolvers, having lost his others the night before. In his trunk he also
carried a light, short-barreled Winchester repeater, and this he took
out.
His eyes fell on the magician’s cabinet, and a thought struck him. He
hesitated, and then muttered:
“Who knows? These Moors are superstitious, and they might prove
valuable. I will take such as I can carry.”
From the cabinet he extracted numerous things which he concealed about
his person. Among other things was a small electric battery.
Ephraim armed himself in a manner similar to Frank.
The professor had a strong aversion for firearms, and so he went about
entirely unarmed.
Frank did not forget to take some strong field glasses.
When everything was ready they descended and left the hotel.
Three black men were holding the horses at the door, and the proprietor
was there to see them off.
“How far are you going?” he asked, regarding them curiously.
“Not far,” answered Frank. “It is probable you will see us back
to-morrow.”
The proprietor shook his head gravely.
“I fear for that,” he said. “You had better keep within a few miles of
the city, for the plains at a distance are infested with robber bands,
any of which would not hesitate to do murder. I do not understand why
you are going outside the city, anyway, for there is nothing to be
seen.”
Frank was not inclined to satisfy his curiosity, and they rode away,
waving him a farewell, which he returned.
Not till they were beyond the city’s limits did the professor think that
he had not told his friend, the United States Consul, of this foolhardy
expedition. He would have turned back at once, but Frank said:
“Very well, professor, you may go; but we shall not wait for you, as we
have no time to lose if we hope to overtake one of those caravans before
nightfall.”
The professor had turned his horse about. A groan left his lips, and it
changed to a cry of horror as he lifted his eyes to the high posts which
stood on either side of the gate in the white wall of the city.
“Look!” he gasped. “It is horrible!”
The boys looked, and on each of those posts they saw a human head that
had been severed from the body. These heads had been suspended by the
hair to some curved points which projected from the posts, and they hung
there in all their ghastly horror, dripping blood and gazing with
sightless eyes toward the desert for which the boys and the professor
were bound.
“Wal, I be gol derned!” gurgled Ephraim, his voice sounding husky and
catching in his throat. “Them’s purty things to look at!”
“They are heads of criminals,” explained Frank. “I have heard that it is
the custom of this country to suspend the heads of criminals at the
gates of the cities in this manner. They are placed there as a warning
to others.”
“A warning to us,” said the professor, his voice shaking. “It tells us
we had better get out of this wretched country without delay. It is a
warning to be heeded.”
“Nonsense! Come on, professor; we are losing time.”
“Go on! I am going back.”
“Good-by, professor.”
At a signal from Frank the two lads rode onward.
The professor watched them a few moments, and then rode after them,
calling:
“Hold on; I will go.”
Of this Frank had felt confident all the time.
Away to the south they rode, having been told to bear a little to the
east. Frank had a compass, and he did not believe they would get lost in
the desert so they could not find their way out.
Long, level plains lay before them. Here and there they could see small
huts made of sun-baked clay.
Occasionally they passed by fields where some crude efforts at tilling
the soil had been made, but the greater part of the country was bleak
and bare.
The sun beat down mercilessly on the bare plain. The grass was withered
and brown, and patches of sandy soil reflected the heat.
There were no roads, but for some time after leaving Tangier they could
follow in the track made by many caravans that had passed that way.
Gradually this track became fainter and fainter, till at last it was
lost entirely.
The solitude of the plains was depressing, the silence was awesome.
Frank began to realize the magnitude of his undertaking, and, for the
first time, he doubted the wisdom of the attempt; but he said nothing,
riding onward in silence, his face firm and resolute.
Professor Scotch was silent and gloomy, while Ephraim’s jests seemed to
fall flat and be lost on the others.
The sun swung lower and lower, but its rays seemed to lose none of their
scorching heat.
“What ef we should not find one of them air carryvans ter-night, Frank?”
asked Ephraim, rather anxiously.
“We will find it in the morning,” was the calm reply.
Scotch groaned.
“And have to stay all alone on the desert to-night,” he exclaimed. “We
would be devoured a hundred times by wild beasts.”
“It’s not wild beasts we have to fear so much as wild men,” said Frank.
“We must keep our eyes about us.”
“What’d we eat for supper?” asked the boy from Vermont, who possessed a
very healthy appetite. “That’s what I’d like to know.”
“We would not eat until we found the caravan in the morning.”
“If we did not find the caravan,” put in the professor, “we might
starve. There is a fine chance to starve out here.”
“I scarcely think we will starve. I have provided for that.”
“You have? Why, you have brought no provisions.”
“No; but I have brought something that will keep us from starving.”
“What is it?”
“Some nuts.”
“What kind of nuts?”
“Koola nuts, which I found in Bakalailand, far to the south. The natives
down there eat this nut when they cannot obtain food, and it keeps up
their strength and preserves them from hunger for many days. It is a
wonderful little nut, but it is dangerous.”
“Haow’s that?” asked Ephraim.
“It is a very easy thing to fall into the habit of eating it to obtain
relief from over-exertion, and this habit fastens itself on a person
like drinking or smoking. It shows no ill result at first, but it is
ruinous to one who persists in its use. It will make such a person a
tottering wreck, like a victim of the morphine habit. Like all good
things, the koola nut may be used to excess. In the United States
several concerns advertise decoctions made from the koola nut,
recommending them to athletes, bicyclists and all who exert themselves
in sports and pastimes. College lads are taking to its use, in case they
play football, baseball or anything of the sort. Some of them will
become addicted to the habit, and it may ruin them. Bicyclists have
found it refreshing and invigorating after a long run, and they are
becoming victims of the habit. Hundreds, yes thousands, will be weakened
and broken down by it. It is——”
“Hold on, Frank,” cried Ephraim. “Jest let the kooly nut rest a while,
an’ see what you make uv this.”
He pointed across the plain to where a tiny cloud of dust could be seen.
In the midst of the dust was a moving mass that became more and more
distinct with each passing moment.
“Horsemen,” said Frank Merriwell, grimly. “Look to your weapons,
Ephraim. We may have trouble.”
Professor Scotch’s teeth chattered.
“We are all done for!” he groaned. “This is the end of this foolish
expedition. I knew how it would come.”
“Wal, we’ll raise a little rumpus before they chaw us up,” said Ephraim,
in his quaint way. “I’d feel a little safer ef I was to hum on the farm,
but ef I’ve gotter fight I’ll fight fer all I am worth, yeou bet!”
Frank was examining his rifle, making sure it was in perfect working
order.
The body of horsemen approached with great swiftness, so that in a short
time they could be seen quite distinctly. Frank surveyed them through
his field glass.
They numbered more than half a hundred, and were dressed in long,
flowing robes of many colors. About their heads they wore turbans. They
were armed with muskets.
Beyond the horsemen Frank saw a caravan of camels that was approaching,
and he immediately decided that the people of the caravan had seen
himself and his companions and had sent out the band of horsemen to
intercept them.
“Ten to one they are Ben Ahmet’s vassals,” was his thought. “It is
possible he has received word from Tangier that we are on the desert,
and he has sent his slaves to murder us. Well, we will die hard.”
As they approached, the horsemen began shouting and waving their
long-barreled rifles over their heads. They rode recklessly, madly, and
the sound of the horses’ hoofs was like sullen thunder.
The leader was an old man with a long white beard, wearing about his
head a bright-colored turban. He rode his coal-black horse like a youth
of twenty years.
“Jingoes! they can ride!” muttered Frank, admiringly. “They remind me of
American cowboys.”
“They kinder make me think it’s unhealthy araound here,” gurgled
Ephraim. “I’m beginning to wish I hedn’t come.”
“Brace up,” came sharply from Frank. “Everything depends on our nerve
now. If we show signs of weakness, there is not one chance in a hundred
for us. Keep a stiff backbone, Ephraim.”
“It’s a fine thing to say ‘brace up,’” fluttered the agitated professor,
“but what show have we against that gang of cutthroats?”
“We are not going to lie down and die, professor.”
Of a sudden, with a wild yell, the horsemen divided and swept around the
party in opposite directions, passed and swept around again.
“Like Indians in the Western States,” breathed Frank, seeing them string
out till there were two parties of horsemen riding in opposite
directions, and both surrounding the professor and the two boys.
These evolutions were continued for some time, with the caravan of
camels steadily approaching while it was going on. When the Arabs had
shown their skill as riders, the old leader, or sheik, gave a signal
that caused them to wheel into one compact mass. Then the chief rode
boldly toward the professor and boys.
“I s’pose he thinks aour hair is standin’ by this time,” drawled
Ephraim.
“Be cool,” directed Frank. “I will meet him.”
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