Alone, Brad Buckhart returned to the hotel. He realized that he had
acted in a ridiculous manner in avoiding his friends and running away
from Dick and Nadia on the streets, but his feeling of shame for such
folly was smothered by one of resentment and jealousy.
"I thought her different from other girls," he muttered, as he paced the
floor of his room; "but she's just like them all--false, fickle, and
giddy. She pretended to like me, but out of sight is out of mind with
her. She flirted with that confounded Turk--yes, she did! That's what
got her into trouble. Her brother is just as foolish as she is. He
encouraged her. I suppose they think me nothing but a rough Texan, good
enough to fight for them and get them out of their troubles, but not
good for anything else. Well, if I take a fancy, I can show them I'm not
half as rough as they think.
"I imagine I can make a respectable appearance in refined society if I
choose to try. Perhaps my family is just as good as the Budthornes. I'd
rather confess to hailing from Texas than to admit that I was from
Chicago. Chicago! Why, a decent white man will turn to a smoked ham in
that town in less than three days! As for wild and woolly places, I
declare Chicago lays way over Texas. A man is liable to be held up
anywhere in Chicago in broad daylight. If he's sandbagged and robbed,
and makes a complaint to the police, he stands a fine prospect of being
locked up as a vagrant. No one from Chicago can get chesty with me."
He was perfectly serious, little realizing the humor of his observations
and attitude. Although naturally broad-minded and manly, he had been
"rubbed the wrong way of the fur" by Nadia's action, and, for the time,
at least, he was almost childish in his resentment.
The fact that he had this weakness, however, made his other manly
qualities stand out even more clearly.
"I'll show her how much I care!" he continued. "I'll just hold my head
up and keep out of her way. Let her go it! Let her flirt with Turks! If
she does, she'll be sorry!"
He paused. The picture of Nadia making eyes at a handsome Turkish
gentleman rose before him. He fancied he was willing she should do
anything she wished, but now, all at once, he realized that she could
hurt him very much in case she disdained him and turned her attention in
other directions.
He had been bluffing when he ran away from her, and he knew it now. As a
rule he was able and willing to back up any bluff he made, but now his
reason told him he would weaken immediately in case this bluff was
called.
What if Nadia became offended by his ungentlemanly behavior in running
away from her when she called to him and tried to overtake him? What if
that one bad break of his should cause her in future to regard him with
indifference or aversion?
"Oh, ginger!" he exclaimed. "I couldn't stand that! It would drive me to
suicide! I'm a chump, and I can't help it! Dick is with her. Perhaps
she'll get smitten on him!"
This thought added to his agitation.
"How can she help it?" he muttered, again fiercely pacing the floor.
"Dick is the sort of fellow all the girls care for. He's far superior to
me, and I don't see how she came to be interested the least bit in me in
the first place. Of course, there is June Arlington and Doris
Templeton--but they're on the other side of the Atlantic, and I don't
believe there ever yet was a pretty girl who did not believe she could
cut out another girl if she really tried.
"Perhaps that's what Nadia is trying to do! Perhaps she's playing a
clever game by pretending to have any interest in me and seeming
indifferent to Dick. A girl best attracts a fellow by seeming
indifferent to him. The girl who pursues a chap is bound to lose him,
nine times out of ten. It's the fellow who wants to do the pursuing. He
loves the chase and the zest of it. Some girls know this, and they play
the timid deer to perfection. Nadia Budthorne is right clever, and I'll
wager something this little game is no secret to her.
"I've hit it at last! I've known all along that she really cared for
Dick, and now I've been fool enough to help her in her play. Say, I
ought to be shot! I know Dick is on the level, but how is he going to
resist a clever girl like her? He might, if June Arlington were near;
but June is far away, and, in my estimation, Nadia lays away over June
any old time. Oh, you poor fool!"
He clenched his fist and struck himself on the side of the head.
Thus it happened that Professor Gunn and Dunbar Budthorne found the
Texan in anything but a happy frame of mind when they returned to the
hotel.
They were agitated over the disappearance of Dick and Nadia, for whom
they had searched and inquired ere leaving the bazaars. When they did
return to the hotel it was with the expectation and hope that they might
find the boy and girl there.
"They will turn up all right," declared Brad. "Dick will take care of
her, never fear."
And now for the first time in his life he grew violently jealous of his
bosom comrade.
"If he plays me double I'll never again have the least confidence in
human nature!" he mentally cried.
But when an hour passed and the missing boy and girl failed to return to
the hotel Buckhart began to share the alarm of the professor and
Budthorne.
"If anything happens to that boy I'll never forgive myself!" said the
old pedagogue.
"We must look for them," said Dunbar. "You know what took place at the
railway station. What if some of Hafsa Pasha's tools found Dick and
Nadia alone and unprotected?"
Suddenly Brad Buckhart reassumed his Western manners.
"Whoop!" he cried. "Let's amble forth on the warpath! Let's take to the
trail and go out for scalps! I'm ready, and you know I can scrap some,
if I don't shine resplendent at a soiree. I'm in right good humor for a
scrimmage."
Together they left the hotel and started to return to the bazaar; but
they had not proceeded far when they were stopped by the appearance of
an open carriage, in which were Dick and Ras al Had.
Dick called to them, and the carriage stopped. Young Merriwell sprang
down.
Budthorne, pale and shaking with apprehension, rushed forward and
clutched him, demanding to know what had become of Nadia.
Dick told the whole story in as few words as possible.
As he listened Brad Buckhart grew ashen. He realized that Dick and Nadia
had become separated from the professor and Budthorne through their
efforts to follow and overtake him. By running away in such a childish
manner he had led them into all that trouble, the end of which had been
the disappearance of the girl.
"Fool! fool!" he groaned. "I am to blame for it all!"