Late that day, as the grateful shadows of approaching night were
settling over Damascus, Ras al Had came quietly to the hotel, and was
highly satisfied to find Dick Merriwell there. He drew the boy aside,
saying he wished to speak with him in private.
"I have found one of the dogs who betrayed me," said the old sheik.
"Would you behold him? Would you hear what he has to say?"
"Yes, yes."
"Do you trust me now?"
"Of course I do!"
"Do you trust me completely?"
"Yes."
"Then tell your friends not to worry about you, even though you leave
them and do not return with the passing of another day. If you ask
questions now I shall know you do not trust me, even though you say so."
Dick asked no questions.
Thus far everything possible had been done for Nadia. Her disappearance
had been reported, and they had received the assurance that an earnest
effort would be made to find her and return her in safety to her
friends. Dick had made a formal complaint of the assault, and was
informed that the whole matter should be investigated and the guilty
parties punished.
They all knew, however, that they were not liable to receive anything
more than promises from the Turkish authorities. This being the case,
they were compelled to rely mainly on the American consul and the
promise of Ras al Had, the sheik.
It is probable that Dick Merriwell was the only one who really placed
any confidence in the old Arab.
Brad Buckhart was immovable in his conviction that the sheik was
concerned in the dastardly work.
Knowing Brad would raise a disturbance, Dick told the professor that he
might be gone for twenty-four hours. Immediately Zenas made an effort to
exercise his authority over the boy.
"You shall not go, Richard!" he exclaimed. "I forbid it!"
"I am sorry you forbid it, professor, for you know I dislike to disobey
you."
"Eh? Hum! haw! Why, why, you don't mean to tell me to my face that you
will defy me?"
"No, sir; I do not defy you. Circumstances make it necessary for me to
disobey you, and so----"
"You shall not do it! I won't have it! Your brother looks to me to bring
you back safely to him, and I----"
"Were my brother here he would approve of what I am doing."
"Well, what are you doing? Where are you going?"
"I can't tell you."
"Haw! hum! I positively decline to let you leave this hotel!"
"I can't help that. Look after Budthorne. He's nearly distracted. Tell
him to brace up. Somehow I have confidence that we'll be able to find
Nadia. You'll have your hands full taking care of Brad."
"I need you to help me. The boy is crazy."
"He blames himself for what happened, and he always will blame himself
unless Nadia is found."
"I can't do anything with him. He's like a mad bull. Richard, you are
the only one who can handle him. Don't leave me!"
"I must."
"Why, I thought you an obedient boy! I never fancied you would set
yourself up in defiance of me."
"You do not understand, professor; I am doing what I firmly believe is
for the best."
Zenas wrung his hands.
"If we ever get out of this mess," he declared, "I'm going to take you
back home just as fast as possible."
"All right; but that is something to be considered later."
"You should be there. You should be in school at Fardale this day."
"You forget that I was expelled, professor."
"By that old dunkhead, Gooch! Wait till we get home. I'm going to have a
little session with Barnaby Gooch, and also with Chester Arlington. Your
turn is coming, Richard--that is if you do not throw your life away in
some reckless folly. Do be cautious, Richard! Listen to me!"
Dick did his best to reassure the old man, but Zenas clutched his arm
and attempted to cling to him, still urging and entreating.
Swiftly the boy released the fingers of the old pedagogue.
"I'll come back all right in time," he said, and then hastened away.
Gunn hurried after him out of the hotel. He saw Dick spring upon the
back of a horse. Another horse, with a dark, silent man on its back,
stood near. Both animals were off in a moment, disappearing with their
riders into the dusky shadows of a street leading to the north.
Zenas Gunn stood trembling in front of the hotel. His heart was heavy
with dread.
"Oh, Richard!" he murmured pathetically; "Heaven guard you! You are
brave unto recklessness, and I fear that some day your recklessness will
bring ruin upon you."
At the side of Ras al Had Dick Merriwell rode through Damascus. They
were on the outskirts of the city when the aged sheik drew rein.
"We stop here," he said.
Immediately two men appeared to take the horses.
They dismounted.
"Follow, boy," commanded the sheik.
Dick did not hesitate about obeying. He kept at the heels of the Arab,
who entered some straw-thatched sheds. It was very dark under the shed,
not even the light of the stars penetrating there.
Ras al Had uttered a call, and soon a man came hurrying with a
fluttering light. He was black as midnight, with thick lips, and huge
gold rings in his ears. He salaamed before the sheik.
"Hold the light, Assouan," directed Ras al Had. "Let us behold the dog
who betrayed me."
Then he touched the arm of the American boy and made a gesture toward
the ground not far from their feet.
Assouan held the light as commanded, and it fell on a spectacle that
caused Dick to recoil and utter a cry of horror.
Face downward on the ground, his arms and legs outspread, with his
wrists and ankles bound to stout stakes, was a black man, stripped of
clothing. His back was covered with blood.
"You see what happens to curs who betray Ras al Had," said the sheik, in
a harsh voice.
"Heavens!" gasped Dick. "The miserable wretch has been beaten until his
back is all cut up!"
"He was lashed until the pain loosened his tongue and he confessed,"
said the sheik. "This man was one of the four I sent to escort you and
the maiden."
"You--you compelled him to tell what has become of her?"
"I wrung it from his lips."
"What did he tell?"
"You shall hear."
Ras al Had touched the wretched victim with a staff which he took from
one corner of the shed.
The man did not stir.
"Look, thou dog!" said the sheik; "art longing for further punishment?
Then speak promptly, or I swear by the beard of the Prophet that thou
shalt be cut into a thousand pieces! Who paid thee to choke the infidel
lad?"
"Why, it's the fellow who nearly murdered me!" exclaimed Dick, for he
had not recognized the mutilated wretch.
"The same," said the sheik. "Why doesn't he speak? Assouan, bring the
whip."
The black man with the light hastened to obey. The whip, a long,
wicked-looking affair, with a rawhide lash into which were knotted many
pieces of lead, was quickly produced.
Ras al Had took the spluttering light from Assouan's hand.
"Stand ready," he directed. "When I bid you strike have no mercy."
Dick's blood was cold in his body. The situation was one to fill him
with horror. He was alone in that wretched shed, his companions a
merciless Arab, a black man of the desert, and the helpless wretch bound
outspread on the bare ground. It was night, and the moon had not yet
risen. Beneath the shed the darkness was dispelled only by the flaring
light, which cast many grotesque shadows dancing on the walls.
Again Ras al Had bade the man speak. In return there was neither sound
nor movement.
"Strike, Assouan--strike!" said the sheik coldly.
Assouan lifted the whip.
Dick could stand no more of it, and he stepped in front of the black
man, crying:
"Hold! This is too much! Tell me, Ras al Had, what he confessed, but do
not carry this thing further!"
A strange look of mingled surprise and rage at this interference settled
on the face of the old Arab. He opened his lips to speak, but at this
moment the man on the ground groaned and mumbled a few broken words.
Instantly Ras al Had bent over the wretch, holding the light so it fell
on the man's face. The traitor's head had dropped over to one side, his
lips were open, showing his gleaming teeth, while his eyes glittered
glassily.
The sheik poked a finger at those wide-open, glittering eyes. They did
not blink. Then Ras al Had rose and said very quietly:
"It is too late. He will speak no more. He is dead."
Dick felt ill, and hurried out of the shed into the open air.
The old sheik followed.
"Although he is dead," he said, "I can tell you what he confessed. The
name of the crooked old Turk who paid them to attack you and carry the
maiden away is Abu Hammed. Hammed is in the employ of Hafsa Pasha. The
girl is to be kept somewhere until the excitement dies down, and then
she will be added to Hafsa Pasha's harem. He thinks that by that time he
can win her over so she will be willing and glad to live a life of ease
in the harem."
"If you had only learned where they took her----"
"Wait. I told you of my friend who just arrived in Damascus with many
beautiful girls, one of which he has brought for Hafsa Pasha."
"Yes."
"Hafsa Pasha will visit the house where those girls are to-night. I have
not forgotten the fate of my brother far away in Persia. Some day my
sword shall drink the blood of Hafsa Pasha; but first I would find a way
to compel him to tell where the maid you seek is hidden."
"Wait!" cried Dick, struck by a sudden idea. "It might be done! I
believe it can be! It's worth trying!"
"Of what do you speak?"
"I have a plan."
"Unfold it."
"Can't you get me into the house where those girls are?"
"Of what good would that be?"
"I'll go disguised as a girl."
"A girl?"
"Yes."
"But----"
"It will not be the first time I have made up as a girl, and they say I
make a pretty girl, too. If you know where I can get the outfit, I'll
make up as a girl and go there. Can't you arrange it so I'll fall
beneath the notice of Hafsa Pasha? If his attention is called to me I'll
do my part."
"What will you do?"
"I'll fool him. I'll get him to buy me and take me to his harem. I'll
win his confidence and find out where Nadia is hidden."
"It is a desperate venture."
"But I'll play my part, depend on it. Wait until you see me made up as a
girl. If you are not satisfied then you may refuse to go on with the
scheme."
The old Arab seemed to catch some of the boy's enthusiasm.
"Very well," he said. "If it costs you your life, I cannot feel that I
am to bear the blame. It is your plan. I'll take you without delay to a
place where you may dress and prepare for the deception. But you shall
have assistants, hairdressers, dressmakers, anything you need to make
your disguise perfect."
Ras al Had then spoke to Assouan, giving him some directions in regard
to the dead man in the shed.
Dick followed his strange companion through a number of crooked streets.
Finally they reached the door of a house, to which they were admitted on
knocking.
The sheik conferred with a gnarled and crooked old Jew, explaining that
he wished the boy to be dressed and made up like a girl. The old Jew
seemed puzzled and surprised, but agreed, for a price, to attempt the
transformation.
Time was passing, and the sheik did not haggle. He simply insisted that
the job should be thoroughly done, and the boy should be made up as
carefully and tastily as if he were in truth a girl.
Then he left Dick in the old Jew's hands, saying he would hasten to
complete the necessary arrangements and then return for the transformed
boy.
Less than an hour later the aged sheik again knocked at the Jew's door
and was admitted. He was informed that the boy would soon be ready to
accompany him, but that he would have to wait a few minutes while the
finishing touches of the disguise were being put on.
The Jew asked him if he had any objections to waiting in a room with a
young lady customer, and Ras al Had soon found himself in a small
apartment, in a corner of which sat a girl in street costume. Apparently
she was a foreigner, for her flesh was dazzlingly fair, and her clothes,
from the beautiful hat on her head to the high-heeled boots on her feet,
had a distinct Parisian touch.
The sheik remained standing, quite aware that the girl was surveying him
with evident interest or curiosity. His one glance had shown him that
she was unusually handsome, with dark hair and eyes.
Finally she heaved a sigh and moved impatiently.
"Dear me!" she said, in perfect English. "This is very tiresome. I've
waited nearly an hour. Won't you sit down, sir?"
Ras al Had bowed very low and took a seat upon the floor.
"How funny!" laughed the girl, with a fetching little shrug of her
shoulders. "All you dark gentlemen decline to sit on chairs. You always
sit on the floor or the ground, and cross your legs."
Again he bowed, without speaking.
"Don't you understand English?"
"Very well, madam."
"I'm no madam; I'm a miss. I'm looking for a husband. I don't suppose
you know where I can find a man with plenty of rocks? I'm out for the
coin."
The Arab glanced at her keenly, wondering if she could be in earnest.
She fluttered her fan and smiled over the top of it with a bewitching
look.
"You're not much of a talker, are you?" she went on. "Well, never mind.
American girls can speak for themselves, and the men, too."
"Are you from America, miss?"
"Sure thing. I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. Really, I started out to travel
round the world, writing newspaper letters for the home papers; but all
the papers have cut me off, and I'm stranded. I don't care about going
back home, for I made up my mind to catch a rich husband on the trip.
Now, if you could put me next with some old gazabo who has lots of the
needful, and I succeeded in raking him in, I'd willingly make it worth
your while."
Ras al Had drew a deep breath of wonderment. Although he did not fully
understand her, he comprehended that this was one of the free-and-easy
young ladies of the Western world of whom he had heard. She was young
and bewitching in appearance, but her manner of talk seemed to betray a
knowledge of the world one would not suspect her to possess.
The sheik shook his head.
"I can give you no assistance," he declared.
She laughed and sprang up, crossing the floor toward him.
He rose hastily.
"I don't believe you know me," said the girl. "We have met before, and I
am sure, as a special favor, you will aid me in capturing a rich
husband."
He retreated before her, but she followed him up, and actually pinned
him in a corner.
"Come, now!" she cried, with a dazzling smile that showed her perfect
teeth; "you can't get out of it. I'm not particular, and I'll marry
almost anybody with the dust. I'd even marry Hafsa Pasha, and you can
fix that up for me."
He protested that it was impossible, and his manner caused the girl to
laugh still more heartily.
"How do I look?" she asked. "Is this get-up all right?"
"Indeed, you should have no trouble in getting a rich husband," said the
sheik.
"Then take me to the house of your friend, where I am to meet Hafsa
Pasha."
"You--you----"
"I am the boy you brought here to be changed into a girl."
"Allah have mercy! Impossible!"
The "girl" was in truth Dick Merriwell, and he laughed heartily over the
amazement of the old Arab. Even then Ras al Had seemed to doubt his
senses; but the Jew came in, grinning and rubbing his hands together,
and stood waiting for his price.
"Wonderful!" murmured the sheik. "Why, you play the part so well that
any man might be deceived. It is worth the money, Abraham. Now I believe
you will succeed, boy, in your daring scheme. But I shall try to be near
you, for you may suddenly need the aid of my arm and my sword."