The Cat Comes Back
The hands of the control-room clock crept up to five. Scotty asked an
Egyptian technician to watch the tapes for a moment, then went to the
telephone and called the hotel.
It wasn't like Rick to be late. Scotty thought his pal might have
decided to take a nap and had failed to wake up in time, but he had
little faith in the idea. Rick wasn't a nap taker. More likely,
something had happened at the museum.
The hotel desk rang the room without success, and to Scotty's question,
the clerk answered that he had not seen Mr. Brant or Hassan since
morning.
Scotty debated calling the museum, and decided against it. He went to
Parnell Winston, who was supervising the transfer of information from
the Sanborn tracings to graph paper.
"Rick hasn't shown," Scotty said bluntly. "I'm worried. He's never
late."
Winston glanced up. "Could Hassan's car have broken down?"
"Could be, but I don't think so. Rick could have gotten a taxi anywhere
on the route. Besides, he was going to the museum to get the Egyptian
cat. Something might have happened."
The scientist knew the two boys from long association, and they had kept
him informed of their various adventures. In spite of his preoccupation
with the project he had been interested in their cat mystery and had
been keeping an eye on them. Winston hadn't noticed that Rick was late,
but he was worried too, now that it was called to his attention.
"Go find him, Scotty. Dr. Kerama's driver can take you. I'll have one of
the others watch the tapes. But get back as soon as you can."
Scotty planned his search on the way into town. He had the car take him
to the museum as soon as they arrived in Cairo. The museum was closed,
but questioning of the guard disclosed that Rick had been there, and had
"found" an unusual statue wrapped in newspaper and left in an urn. It
was a new statue, the guard captain said, probably left by some visitor
who had disobeyed the sign about taking packages into the museum.
So Rick had carried out the plan and had rescued the Egyptian cat. Now
the museum had the kitten.
Scotty had the car take him to the hotel. There was no sign of either
Rick or Hassan, and no one had seen either of them. Scotty questioned
the clerk, the doorman, the hall porter, the room maid, and the dragomen
who waited for business in the narrow street between the Semiramis and
the Shepheard's hotels.
Finally, he found a dragoman who knew nothing of their whereabouts, but
added, "Why you not wait in room? They not far. Hassan's car here."
"Where?" Scotty demanded quickly.
"Out back. In alley."
Scotty ran. The dragoman was right! Hassan's car was parked in the usual
place. He looked around to see who might have been working in the area,
someone who might know when the car had arrived.
A window in the hotel kitchen opened into the alley above the car and a
cook was looking out. Scotty found the door and hurried into the hotel.
He worked his way through rooms and corridors until he found the
kitchen. He saw that the cook was a salad maker who apparently worked at
a bench right next to the window, but to his questions the man shook his
head. He spoke no English.
Additional searching produced the chief cook, whose English was good. He
relayed Scotty's questions and the cook's answers.
"He say car come while he cleaning up after lunchtime. He see stranger
driving. So he lean out and ask where is Hassan. Stranger say he is the
cousin of Hassan and Hassan lend him car. That is all. Cousin lock up
car and go away."
It was enough. But Scotty's elation over finding a clue was tempered by
the realization that a stranger driving Hassan's car could mean that
Rick and the dragoman were in real danger. He did not know whether or
not Hassan had any cousins, but he was certain the guide would not have
loaned the car while on a job.
Scotty ran into the alley and tried all the doors. If Rick had managed
to leave a note or any clue in the car, Scotty wanted it. Locked doors
weren't going to stop him!
He searched the alley until he found a piece of stiff wire. He bent one
end into a hook. Then, with his jackknife, he pried one of the no-draft
windows open just far enough to slip the wire in. He wedged the window
with a piece of wood and began fishing.
It took long, patient minutes to hook a door handle, then more time to
maneuver the wire into position. By the time he was ready for the last
step, the cooks and some of the dragomen were watching. He paid no
attention. Holding his breath, he exerted pressure on the wire. The
inner handle turned, the latch clicked. The door was unlocked.
Scotty started in the front seat and went over the car methodically. He
found nothing. Finally, only the cushions were left. He pulled the front
one away and examined the debris that seems to collect under car seats.
He put the cushion back and went to the rear one.
He lifted the seat out--and disclosed the Egyptian cat, in back of the
cushion where Rick had stuffed it.
Scotty examined it, his heart racing. He hurriedly set things to rights
in the car, closed the car door, and hurried into the hotel.
He knew Rick, and he knew his pal wouldn't have parted with the cat
except for one reason: to protect it. That meant Rick had expected to be
searched.
Scotty followed the thought forward, logically. Rick had hidden the cat,
then he and Hassan had been taken from the car. A "cousin" had brought
it back to the hotel. Why? Scotty didn't know the answer to that, unless
Rick and Hassan had been taken in some location where an abandoned car
would have attracted attention. That wouldn't be in the city, because
who would pay any attention to a car parked and locked at the curb?
But if not in the city, where? Somewhere in the desert was Scotty's
guess. The desert was on both sides of the river, both north and south
of Cairo. He could assume that the two had headed for the project, or
that they had gone north for some reason he couldn't imagine.
He dropped the line of thought; it was getting nowhere. One thing was
clear: whoever had taken Rick and Hassan hadn't suspected that Rick
actually had the cat with him.
The cat had to be the reason. Someone who wanted it had decided on
direct action. Scotty opened the door of the room he shared with Rick
and looked about him unhappily, not really seeing anything. He knew
Rick's captors would not have an easy time making his pal talk. And even
when Rick did open up, he would spin some kind of yarn that would throw
them off the trail. Scotty thought that Rick would not be in any great
danger until he disclosed the cat's whereabouts. But he didn't like the
idea of what Rick would have to go through before then.
The question was who had taken him?
There were two possibilities: Moustafa and Youssef. So far as Third
Brother knew, the cat was to be delivered to him at the hotel that
night. On the other hand, Youssef's men had searched them in front of
the museum, and later Rick had handed Youssef a kitten. The thief must
have found out that the kitten was a fake.
Scotty picked up the room telephone and called the project. In a moment
he had Winston on the line. "Rick's gone," he said tersely. "Hassan,
too. The car was brought to the hotel by a stranger. Rick left the cat
in the car, behind the rear cushion. He wouldn't do that unless he knew
he was going to be searched. My guess is that Youssef snatched them. I
think it's time we got the police in on this!"