Dick Merriwell had brought along a revolver. He drew it in a moment and
held it ready for use, expecting something to happen in the Stygian
darkness of that terrible place.
Professor Gunn cried out to Bayazid, demanding to know the meaning of
his act.
"Get hold of the onery varmint!" advised Buckhart. "Let me put my paws
on him!"
The Texan floundered about, rocking the boat somewhat.
"Be careful, Brad!" warned Dick. "You don't know what he will do! It may
be intended for a joke, just to frighten us, and it may be intended for
something else. I have a pistol. Keep away from him and let me do the
business."
"Pup-pup-perhaps it's pup-pup-part of the regular pup-pup-programme,"
chattered Professor Gunn. "Pup-pup-perhaps they always pup-pup-put out
the tut-tut-torch when they have pup-pup-passengers on this old
underground pup-pup-pond."
"Be quiet," directed Dick. "Bayazid."
He called to the guide, but there was no answer.
"Bayazid!"
Again he called. His voice echoed hollowly in the unseen arches above
their heads.
"Why doesn't the blame fool answer?" growled Buckhart.
"Strike a match, Brad," directed Dick. "I'm holding my revolver ready
for use, and I'll shoot, if necessary, the moment I can see what to
shoot at."
The Texan lost little time in producing a match, but when he attempted
to strike it he failed, the brimstone breaking off. Three matches were
used before one burned. The light flared up, Buckhart holding it above
his head. Its glow fell on the old professor and the two boys, and
simultaneously they made an amazing discovery.
They were alone in the boat!
Bayazid, the guide, had disappeared!
Dick had his revolver ready for action, and he was standing in a
half-crouching position, peering over the head of Buckhart at the place
in the boat lately occupied by the guide.
"He's gug-gone!" gasped Zenas.
Brad dropped the match, and again they were buried in darkness which
seemed to oppress them like an awful weight.
"Great catamounts!" said a voice that sounded strange and husky, but
which Dick recognized as that of the Texan. "Where has he gone? What
does it mean, partner?"
"It means that we are the victims of trickery of some sort," answered
Dick, speaking in a low tone.
"It means that we are deserted to perish on the bosom of this awful
buried lake!" came from the professor, in something like a moan. "I am
to blame! I brought you here!"
"But whatever could be the object?" questioned Brad, in a puzzled tone.
"If it's robbery----"
"It's a plot--a plot, boys! We are objects of suspicion. That agent of
the secret police suspected us of something. In this awful city to be
suspected is to be doomed."
"I can't realize it yet," muttered Dick. "How could the guide get out of
the boat?"
"I'll strike another match, pard," said the Texan. "Keep your gun ready
for use."
"There are other torches," reminded Dick. "We placed them in the bottom
of the boat. Find them, Brad, and light one."
During the interval that followed the Texan was heard feeling about the
bottom of the boat. After a time he confessed:
"I can't seem to get my paws on them. I'll have to use another match.
The light will show us where they are."
Another match was lighted, but, though it was held and moved about to
illumine the bottom of the boat, not a torch was discovered. When they
realized that the extinguished torches were gone they sat up and looked
into one another's eyes by the last gleams of the exhausted match, which
Buckhart held until the blaze scorched his fingers.
For some moments silence followed.
Floating there on the motionless bosom of that black lake, no sound came
down to them from the great city overhead. The stillness was appalling,
yet all feared to speak, dreading the sound of their own voices.
Finally Dick asked:
"How many matches have you, Brad?"
"Not over four or five more."
"And I have none. How about you, professor--have you any?"
"Not one," was the despairing answer.
Suddenly Buckhart grated:
"I'd like to get my paws on the treacherous dog who deserted us in this
fix! I'd certain fit him for a funeral! You hear me affirm!"
"I'm still unable to account for his action," said Dick. "If his object
is robbery, surely he has taken a strange way to go about it."
"Perhaps he's counting on frightening us good and plenty," observed
Brad. "Mebbe when he thinks we're so frightened that we'll be glad to
cough up liberal he will appear and offer to conduct us back to the
outer world."
"Let's call to him," eagerly suggested the professor. Then he lifted his
voice and called loudly.
When he had repeated the cry three times, they listened.
"Didn't you hear a distant answer?" asked Dick.
"I judge whatever we heard was an echo," said Brad.
After a time they lifted their voices in a united shout, and then
listened to the mocking echoes which fled from pillar to pillar and died
in the unknown distance.
"No use!" moaned Professor Gunn. "I am satisfied that we are doomed!
We'll never leave this place alive, and our fate will forever remain a
mystery!"
"I'm sure that was no echo!" exclaimed Dick, as far away in the darkness
they seemed to hear an answer to their repeated shouts. "Be still and
let me shout."
When he had lifted his strong, clear voice all hushed their breathing
and listened.
There was a short interval, and then out of the black distance came a
faint, far-away answer.
"Some one did shout, pard!" exclaimed the Texan. "It's a dead-sure
thing!"
Excitedly they all joined in the hail that followed. The answer was more
distinct.
Dick had found an oar, and he slowly propelled the boat in the direction
from which the answering cries seemed to come. Occasionally they bumped
against the marble pillars, but these collisions did no damage.
Soon they could hear the answers to their cries and knew they were
drawing nearer to the unknown person or persons who were thus
responding.
Suddenly a tiny gleam of light showed amid the pillars at some distance.
"Looks like that's a match, pard," observed Buckhart. "I reckon I'll
strike one, too."
He did so, but the other light disappeared even as he held his own above
his head. Apparently his match was seen, for the voice of a man reached
them, urging them to come in that direction.
By answering call for call they continued to draw nearer to the
strangers, for they soon heard enough to satisfy them that at least two
persons besides themselves were afloat on the bosom of that buried lake.
"One is a woman!" asserted Dick.
Lifting his voice, he asked:
"Who are you?"
"We are Americans. Who are yo'?"
"We are Americans, too."
"What are yo' doing here?"
"We are lost--deserted by our guide."
"So are we. How many of yo' are there?"
"Three. How many of you?"
"Two; and somebody shall suffer fo' this outrage! Somebody shall pay the
penalty fo' it! I'll have satisfaction as sho' 's my name is----"
"Major Mowbry Fitts, of Natchez, Mississippi," finished Dick.
"That's my name, suh! But yo', suh--why, is it possible that yo'
are----"
"Professor Zenas Gunn, accompanied by Dick Merriwell and Brad Buckhart.
Is Miss Ketchum, of Boston, with you?"
"I am here," answered the well-known voice of Sarah Ann. "We have passed
through a most awful and excruciating experience, the faintest
remembrance of which will forever seem like a fearful nightmare. I am
glad you have found us, for now you can assist us in getting out of this
frightful place."
"I am sure we would like to do so," said Dick; "but, unfortunately, like
yourselves, we do not know which way to turn. How did you get here?"
The major explained as the two boats bumped together, and floated thus.
Like the professor and the boys, he and Miss Ketchum had visited the
lake in company with a guide, who had vanished in a mysterious and
unaccountable manner. They fancied they had been afloat for days on the
bosom of the lake, and they were in a pitiful condition of collapse and
fright, although the major had braced up wonderfully for a time.
"This seems to be the usual manner of treating visitors," said Dick.
"We've used our last match," said the major. "I lighted it a few minutes
ago. We had been saving it. I am afraid we will never be able to escape.
I have about given up hope."
"It is the work of that terrible Turk who urged you into the duel with
Professor Gunn, major," said the woman from Boston. "He warned us to
leave Constantinople, but we refused to go, and he told us we would
disappear mysteriously."
"Are you speaking of Aziz Achmet?" asked Dick.
"That is what he calls himself."
"Then you have seen him since the morning of the duel?"
"Seen him!" indignantly exclaimed the major. "We have seen him
everywhere, suh. He has followed us and watched us wherever we went. We
couldn't make a move that he wouldn't turn up. Twice he told us that we
must leave the city and the country."
"I wish now," confessed Miss Ketchum, "that we had obeyed him. Don't
you, major?"
"Well," answered the little man, with a touch of reluctance in his
voice, "I must confess, madam, that I believe it would have been much
better fo' us if we had obeyed."
Barely were these words spoken when, in the pall of darkness near by, a
voice demanded:
"Are you ready to depart now? Will you depart at once? Do you, one and
all, swear by your God that you will lose no time about going?".
Needless to say, the sound of that voice affected them all much like a
sudden clap of thunder on a clear and sunny day. The woman gave a little
scream, the major uttered a smothered oath, the professor gasped for
breath, while both Dick and Brad sat bolt upright, their nerves tense.
"Answer at once!" commanded the unseen speaker. "It is your only hope of
escaping. Among the Armenians we have enough so-called missionaries,
and, therefore, the woman from Boston is not wanted. In the other boat
are the old man and the boys against whom the secret police have been
warned. It will be easy to cause all of you to vanish from the face of
the earth; yet if you pledge yourselves to leave Turkey, you shall be
spared."
"I tell you one thing," spluttered Zenas Gunn eagerly, "I've seen all of
Turkey I care to see, and I'll give you my pledge to leave within
twenty-four hours, taking the boys with me."
"I'll go--oh, I'll go!" promised Miss Ketchum.
"And if she goes," said Major Fitts, "I shall accompany her."
"Swear it!"
The trio were willing enough to do so.
A few moments later a light gleamed a short distance away, and then
three torches were lighted. Within twenty feet of them was another and
larger boat, containing four persons, three of whom were guides. The
fourth was Aziz Achmet. One of the guides was Bayazid, who grinned at
the professor and the boys, as if he thought the whole thing a fine
joke. Another was the guide who had accompanied the major and the woman
from Boston.
Achmet did not touch an oar. He sat in dignified silence as his
companions slowly brought the boat close to the others.
"Mr. Achmet," said Dick, "although we dislike to leave Constantinople
under compulsion, Professor Gunn has given his pledge, and we shall
stand by it. There is one thing, however, that we would like to have
explained. How did our guide disappear in such a mysterious manner?"
Achmet shrugged his shoulders a bit. At first he seemed disinclined to
answer, but apparently he suddenly decided to do so.
"It was very simple, boy," he said. "Your guide stepped from your boat
into this one, which he had seen floating in the shadow of a pillar. I
was in this boat, with these other guides, and I gave him a signal that
he understood. Immediately he extinguished the torch. That threw you
into confusion. This boat silently approached, and Bayazid stepped into
it. In the same manner Yapouly left the other boat."
"Thank you," said Dick. "It was altogether too easy!"
"A heap!" growled Buckhart.