PRISONERS.
The situation was not long in developing. A tall, dirty Arab came in
with some coarse food, which we ate because it was now the middle of the
afternoon and our long ride had made us hungry.
Scarcely had we finished the meal when more Arabs came to lead us from
our quarters. We found six camels saddled and kneeling in the village
street. Three were our own, and with them were three others that seemed
equally good—doubtless the pick of Abdul Hashim’s animals.
The sheik and two stalwart Arabs stood beside the beasts and, as we
approached, Abdul Hashim tersely commanded us to mount. We obeyed,
selecting our own camels; I ventured to ask if we could not have our
rifles, which I saw the sheik and his two men holding. The result was
that he not only refused my request, but ordered us carefully searched,
and so our knives and revolvers were taken away. These the three coolly
appropriated and we were compelled to mount.
Slowly we rode away from the village toward the spot where the three
aged palms reared their fronded heads above the sands. Somewhere near
their roots there must have been moisture, which welled up from below,
but never reached the surface of the desert. It is the only way to
account for the life of these trees amid the sandy waste, whereon
nothing else was able to grow. Often you meet with such phenomena in
tropical climes—vegetation existing seemingly without moisture—but there
must be a rational explanation of these remarkable occurrences.
Abdul Hashim seemed moody, and a frown darkened his handsome bronzed
features. When we arrived at the palms he turned to us and said:
“I have decided to give you a full hour in which to discover the
location of the treasure. To deny that you know where it lies is
useless, for if you fail to find it you will all three die here. I will
not be burdened with prisoners, and I dare not set you free; so you may
preserve your lives but in one way, by finding the treasure.”
This foolish speech made me very indignant with the fellow and
discovered the sheik in an altogether new character.
“You must think we are a bunch of idiots!” I exclaimed, angrily. “If you
dare not set us at liberty now, you surely would not dare do so after we
had found the treasure for you.”
“You may as well kill us now, without farther trouble,” added Archie,
gloomily.
“But that would be awkward for Abdul Hashim,” observed Joe, with a quiet
smile. “Have we not warned the Cadi[3] at Luxor that we saw the sheik at
the window of the bazar, and that we feared mischief at his hands? And
did not the Cadi promise us that if harm came to us he would take
vengeance on Abdul Hashim?”
I looked at Joe admiringly. It was all pure invention, but I could see
that the remark impressed the sheik and caused him to waver in his
purpose.
“The death of Abdul Hashim won’t help us after we are murdered,”
remarked Archie, with a grin of appreciation.
“But it will be a satisfaction, nevertheless, to our friends,” I added,
attempting indifference.
Now, the desert Arab is perhaps the most lawless creature on earth,
except the desert Bega; but also he has a most wholesome fear of the
authorities. The Egyptian mounted police is considered the finest and
ablest body of the kind in existence, and its officers are merciless in
hunting down the offenders of the law. So the Arab covers his crimes as
much as possible, not being wholly deterred from them by the police, but
striving in stealthy ways to escape discovery. Joe’s argument was,
therefore, the most forcible one we could have advanced to safeguard our
lives, and we were glad to see that it made our captor thoughtful. It
might not serve, after all, if the sheik saw any particular object in
killing us off, but until he did the thought of punishment evidently
deterred him from harming us.
He tried another argument.
“Come,” said he, assuming a soft, caressing tone, “there is much
treasure left, you say, and we will divide it equally. Or we will make
it in quarters—I am not greedy, and a quarter is enough for one poor
Arab like me, who only wants money to rebuild his village. And afterward
I will escort you and your prize safely to Koser, or to Cairo, as you
may prefer. All will be well with us, and we shall part friends. Is it
agreed, then?”
He was not at all clever, this big and handsome bandit. No wonder the
Professor found it easy to fool him.
For answer I shook my head.
“What you ask is impossible,” I said, truly. “Van Dorn has guarded his
secret well, for only he knows where to unearth the treasure.”
“Then,” declared the sheik, with an abrupt change in tone, “I must have
Van Dorn. Come; let us ride on.”
“Do you expect to capture Van Dorn’s party with three men?” inquired
Archie, maliciously.
“No; I will tell you my plan. I intend to make a compact with
Gege-Merak, if I can overtake him,” was the calm answer. “Together we
will get the treasure that has been already taken and what still
remains. We have only to wrest the secret from the red-bearded jackal,
and kill him. Then we will divide the spoils and each go our own way. It
is simple and easy enough to do, is it not?”
It seemed to me rather difficult, but I said nothing. Knowing more of
the situation than Abdul Hashim did, I realized that the Bega chief was
already our secret enemy and would doubtless be glad to form an alliance
with the Arab, although the Bega professed to despise the Bedouins who
shared the desert with them. I pinned my faith to Ned Britton, our
stalwart sailors, and Bry, and to the cleverness of the Professor. Abdul
Hashim would find some opposition in carrying out his “easy and simple”
plans.
The camels were now sent forward at a swift pace and soon we reached the
miserable oasis of Laketa. There we learned that all the men of the
village—some half dozen—had joined Gege-Merak’s party and gone into the
mountains. The party of Americans had followed in pursuit an hour later,
said an old woman who spoke English imperfectly.
“Why pursuit?” I asked in wonder, when the sheik, at this information,
turned to me with a triumphant leer.
That, however, the ignorant creature could not explain, either in her
native dialect or in English. We only knew that friends and foes had
disappeared into the foothills several hours before, and it puzzled me
greatly to understand why Uncle Naboth had left us three boys to our
fate and started in pursuit of the Bega chief. The only plausible
explanation was that the Professor wanted to kill Gege-Merak before he
could betray the secret of the treasure and set the authorities at Koser
upon us; but even then it was unlikely that my uncle would consent to
abandon me and my companions for the sake of the treasure or to obey Van
Dorn’s whim. It was not like the faithful old fellow, who had stood by
me in many a former emergency.
Abdul Hashim did not delay at the village, but pushed on hastily, late
as it was. We three boys were ordered to ride ahead, and our captors
followed with rifles ready to shoot if we dared swerve from the path.
Neither could we outdistance them, for their camels were as swift as our
own and more obedient to their control. So we were as much prisoners as
if bound and manacled.
The twilight is brief in Egypt, so soon after the setting of the sun we
were obliged to make a halt. We had now reached the old abandoned well
of the Romans, and beside it we made our camp.
First of all the Arabs tethered the camels; then calmly proceeded to
bind us in an original manner. Our legs were tied from ankles to knees,
and a rope was placed around each of our necks, looping us together and
connecting us in one string with the most powerful of the two Arabs who
accompanied the sheik. We were given food and a swallow of tepid water
each, and afterward our wrists were firmly tied behind us. Trussed up
like so many mummies, we were commanded to lie down and sleep!
Strange to say, we did sleep—not comfortably, perhaps, but from extreme
fatigue; for the hard riding of the day had thoroughly exhausted us.