Directly across the street from the hotel were gathered forty or more
Egyptian donkeys, saddled, bridled and ready for riders. These donkeys
were guarded by boys, who acted both as guides and drivers when the
little animals were engaged.
The moment Dick, Brad, Dunbar, and Nadia appeared on the steps of the
hotel it seemed that all the boys made a rush across the street, yelling
wildly and beckoning with their dusky hands.
"I got good donkey; tak' him!"
"Mine fine donkey, Teddy Rosefelt!"
"Mine best, Cha'ncey Depoo!"
"Tak' mine, G'orge Wash'ton!"
"Tak' mine, Carry Nation!"
"Well, say!" exclaimed Brad; "I'm getting some tired of being called
Cha'ncey Depoo!"
Nadia laughed.
"And I'm not Carry Nation," she said.
"They are not calling us names like that," smiled Dick. "Haven't you
discovered that those are the names other travelers have applied to the
donkeys?"
"Oh, is that it?" said Buckhart, with apparent relief. "Why, I've
happened to take the same donkey both times before, when I've not
walked, and the driver kept shouting Cha'ncey Depoo, so I thought he
meant me."
"He was talking to the donkey."
"Shall we take the donkeys to the hill?" asked Nadia.
"Of course we will," nodded Dunbar. "Pick your beast."
"Well, I like the looks of this boy," said the girl; "so I'll choose
him."
"Girl-like," chuckled her brother, "she chooses by the looks of the boy,
instead of the donkey."
Amid the confusion a man dressed in English clothes, yet with a
decidedly Turkish face, came out of the hotel and stood on the steps,
watching them.
Brad was assisting Nadia to mount when she saw the watching man and
gasped:
"There he is again!"
"Who?" asked the surprised Texan.
"The man who has been watching me lately."
"There on the steps?"
"Yes."
"Has he been annoying you?"
"I feel sure he has been following me and watching me."
The boy from the Pan Handle country flushed and showed that he was
angry.
"Wait a minute," he urged. "I'll just saunter up and inquire of the gent
whatever he means."
Nadia caught his sleeve.
"Don't do that!" she whispered nervously. "Don't do it, Brad!"
"Why not?"
"I don't wish him to know that I have noticed him."
"Well, if the galoot keeps up his little game, he'll find out somebody
has noticed him!"
She restrained the impulsive chap.
By this time all were ready. The boy drivers seized the chosen donkeys
each by the tail, which they gave a twist, crying:
"Ah-ye, Reglay!"
Away went the little beasts, bearing their human burdens easily, while
the boy drivers ran behind, clinging to the tails of the donkeys, which
they seemed to manipulate for the purpose of guiding the animals.
The manner in which the tough little donkeys bore their burdens was
really wonderful. Nadia was sympathetic toward the sprightly little
beasts and kept asking her driver not to make the animal go so fast.
They turned from street to street. Some of the streets were very narrow,
with picturesque overhanging balconies and latticed windows. They passed
several mosques, which were adorned with slender and graceful minarets.
They encountered Arabs, Egyptians and Turks. They passed handsome
carriages and gayly caparisoned camels.
Suddenly they came upon two barefooted, running black men, who were
dressed in flowing garments and carried wands in their hands. These
runners shouted out something, and waved their wands.
Immediately each donkey driver gave a twist to the tail of his animal,
and the faithful little beasts turned aside to permit a handsome landau
to pass. The landau contained a very dignified and very pompous Pasha,
who did not even deign to waste a glance on the common infidels.
They were glared at by a number of officers, wearing handsome uniforms
and displaying silver-mounted weapons. They were scowled at by an Arab
soldier with a musket, mounted on the back of a dromedary.
But their travels in the East had made them accustomed to strange
sights, and no expressions of wonderment escaped them. Instead, they
laughed and joked among themselves.
At last they came to the hill of the citadel, where they dismounted. The
donkeys and their dusky boy drivers waited at the foot of the hill,
while our friends climbed toward the huge fortress which towered above
the city.
This fortress was most imposing in appearance.
The professor was not there to explain how the citadel came to be built,
but Dick had posted himself about it and was able to answer all of
Nadia's questions. He told her how it was constructed in the seventh
century by the victorious followers of the Prophet, headed by Saladin,
the chivalrous foe of Richard the Lion Hearted. Saladin's architect did
not hesitate to bring thither blocks of stone from the palaces and
temples of old Memphis, and to raze several smaller pyramids, besides
removing the polished outer stones from the larger pyramids.
"Only for that," said Dick, "it is not likely we would be able to climb
the pyramids now. It robbed them of their greatest beauty."
"That was a shame!" exclaimed Nadia. "What good did the old citadel do
after all?"
"It was a fine place for one of the successors to Saladin, the crafty
old viceroy, Mehemet Ali, to butcher the Mamelukes."
"Oh, I've heard something about that. How did it happen?"
"It didn't happen. It was one of the most crafty and cold-blooded
butcheries known in history. You know the name Mameluke signifies White
Slave. The founders of the Mamelukes were originally Circassians, who
had been brought into slavery in this country. They gradually became
favorites, but finally turned to tyrants. They had helped Mehemet Ali to
secure his position of power, but he feared and distrusted them. He
finally decided it was expedient to get rid of them. So he invited them
to a great banquet, to be held in the citadel. They came without
suspecting his bloody and treacherous purpose. There were nearly five
hundred of them, magnificently dressed and mounted. When the great gate
had closed behind them, and they could not retreat, the viceroy's troops
appeared on the walls and poured a withering fire on the entrapped
Mamelukes. They were mowed down, men and horses, in a most horrible
manner. Of all the Mamelukes only one escaped. He forced his horse to
mount the heaped-up bodies of his bleeding comrades and their dying
horses, and leaped the parapet, followed by a volley of bullets. In some
manner he escaped untouched, although his horse fell beneath him. He
fled into the desert."
Nadia gazed at the grim walls of the citadel and shuddered.
"It seems that every historic spot is stained with crime," she said.
They soon reached the top of the hill and found they were just in time
to witness the glories of an Egyptian sunset.
The view from that elevation was most impressive. Below them, and near
at hand, rose a great mass of delicate and graceful minarets, glittering
in the last rays of the sun. The strange Oriental city huddled beyond,
and then, as far as the eye could reach, wound the silver Nile, its
shores on either side green with verdure.
Away to the west the sun was sinking into a violet sea of light. There
lay the mighty desert, brown, barren, desolate--the desert with its
dreaded sand storms and simooms.
On the edge of this desert they could see three mighty shapes,
silhouetted against the sky--the Pyramids. They knew that for at least
five thousand years those mysterious and marvelous monuments had been
standing thus, casting their lengthening shadows across the eastern
waste, as the sun sank to its nightly rest in the bosom of the desert.
Silence fell on them. They watched the sun go down, and it seemed that
the orb of day had sunk in hopeless despair to rise no more. They were
impressed by the mightiness of the universe, and they felt themselves
mere ants amid the marvels of creation. It was a place and time to give
them a just understanding of their own insignificance.