VICTORY AGAINST ODDS
Don was sheltered by a rock immediately adjoining the one behind which
his Uncle Frank was lying, and he could hear the latter grit his teeth
as he caught sight of the two rascals.
“The spawn!” the captain muttered. “I’ll have a crack at each of them
before the day is over.”
Tezra detached himself from the fierce-eyed, hawk-nosed tribesmen that
formed his lawless following, and, waving a white cloth, advanced
toward the foot of the slope.
“I’d like to shoot it out of his hand,” growled the captain.
But an envoy’s flag, even when held by a scoundrel, is sacred, and the
captain reluctantly rose to his feet.
“Keep him covered,” he commanded, and turned toward Tezra.
“What do you want?” he demanded curtly.
“A share of the treasure you have found,” replied Tezra.
“I like your impudence,” returned the captain. “On what ground?”
“Because we are the stronger,” was the cynical avowal. “We are many and
you are few.”
“And if I refuse?”
“We will come and take it and wipe you out.”
“And if I surrender it to you?”
“We will let you go with your lives.”
“Now listen to me, you scoundrel,” blazed forth the captain. “My answer
is ‘no’. A thousand times, no! You can’t have anything except over our
dead bodies.”
“You are going to your death,” snarled Tezra. “We are twenty to six.
You have no chance.”
“You and Nepahak will go with us then,” retorted the captain. “You have
my answer. Come and take us.”
The discomfited envoy, with a scowl, returned to his companions, and an
animated debate ensued.
Tezra and Nepahak, their red fezzes shining brightly in the sun, could
be seen moving here and there, evidently urging a course of action to
which some of the others objected.
“I’m going to throw a scare into those fellows,” declared the captain.
“Don, do you see that tassel at the side of Tezra’s fez?”
“Yes,” replied Don, getting his rifle ready.
“Clip it,” the captain commanded. “I’ll take the button on the fez of
Nepahak. Fire when I give the word.”
They took careful aim.
“Fire!”
The shots rang out simultaneously. The button was shorn neatly from
Nepahak’s fez, and the tassel fell from the side of the fez of Tezra as
though it had been clipped with shears.
A chorus of shouts went up from the tribesmen and they threw themselves
from their mounts, crouching on the further side of the animals for
shelter. Tezra and Nepahak, their faces blanched, quickly did the same.
“We could have sent those through your heads just as easily,” shouted
the captain, “but we do not want your blood on our hands.”
That the marvelous shooting had had its effect was evident from
the long pause that ensued. Don began to hope that the “bluff” had
succeeded.
But the hope of loot had been too long nourished and the disparity
in numbers was too great for the robbers to abandon their project so
easily. It was unlikely that all of the little forlorn hope of six were
equally good marksmen.
Gradually the camels, under the prodding of their hidden masters, began
to move slowly toward the base of the slope so as to diminish the
distance when the time came to charge. It would have been easy to bring
some of the camels down, but the explorers stayed their hands.
“They’re coming now!” exclaimed the captain, as his practiced eye
saw that they were gathering for a rush. “Don’t show an inch more of
yourselves that you can help. Fire to wound but not to kill, on this
first rush. A man put out of action counts for as much as a dead one.
Fire when I give the order, and then keep on firing.”
A score of rifles suddenly appeared above the camels’ backs, and a
volley of bullets came pattering against the rocks. Then, with a loud
shout, the Bedouins abandoned their shelters and rushed forward, firing
as they came.
“Fire!” cried the captain.
Six rifles cracked and each missile found a mark. Don had picked out
Nepahak, and caught him in the leg. The captain sent a bullet through
Tezra’s shoulder. Mr. Sturdy brought down the Bedouin chief. The
others, at such close range, could hardly miss, and they did not.
The tribesmen wavered as they saw their leaders go down. Another volley
wrought havoc in their ranks, and they broke and ran to the shelter of
their camels. No bullets pursued them, as the explorers wanted to limit
the casualties as much as possible.
“Do you think they will rush us again, Uncle Frank?” asked Don, as he
reloaded.
“Not likely; though they may,” was the reply. “And they may have
reinforcements in the vicinity who will be attracted by the sound of
the shooting. Hark! What’s that?”
There was the sound of a bugle in the distance, and a few minutes later
a squad of Egyptian cavalry galloped up, a smart looking officer riding
at their head.
At the first bugle note, the unwounded tribesmen mounted their camels
and scurried away as fast as their beasts could carry them.
The young officer swung himself from the saddle and looked about at the
wounded men, who gave ample evidence that a skirmish had occurred.
The Americans, accompanied by Phalos, advanced to meet him. A short
colloquy followed, and the situation was cleared up satisfactorily. The
squad was a Government patrol sent out to subdue lawless bands that had
of late been giving much trouble.
“You’ve done some of our work for us,” the officer declared, as he
supervised the work of gathering up the bandits. None had been killed,
though some of the wounds were painful.
If looks could have killed, the party would certainly have perished
beneath the baleful glances cast at them by Tezra and Nepahak, who,
shortly afterward, were sentenced to ten years at hard labor.
The offer of the young officer to escort the exploring party to Luxor
was accepted, and they reached the city with their precious freight in
safety. The dahabiyeh of Phalos conveyed them to Cairo, and there they
made their report to the Egyptian Government, which immediately set a
guard about the tomb of Ras-Ameses.
The announcement of the discovery to the world created a tremendous
sensation, and honors were showered without stint on the discoverers.
The usual arrangement was made, whereby a certain share of the
treasures went to the Government and the rest was equally divided among
the members of the party, making every one of them rich beyond their
dreams.
But richer far to Don was his finding of his father, a fact that he
cabled at the first possible moment to the wife and daughter waiting
in America. The delirious joy that the news brought into the Hillville
home was beyond expression. Answering cables came, brimming with
happiness and affection, and urging the voyagers to hasten home.
Teddy, too, had got in instant communication with his father, and the
answer received removed all apprehension he might have had as to his
escapade.
“Guess that spanking has gone into the discard,” he grinned, as he read
his message. “Dad seems to think that his wandering boy is the goods,
after all.”
As Don reviewed the events of those stirring weeks, he felt that he
never again would meet with such exciting adventures. But that he was
mistaken will be seen in the next book of this series, entitled: “Don
Sturdy Across the North Pole; or, Cast Away in the Land of Ice.”
Their parting with Phalos was a cause of keen regret to all of them,
for they had learned to regard the old Egyptian with the deepest
affection. The feeling was reciprocated, and he bade them farewell with
the greatest reluctance, after making them promise that they would make
his villa their home on any future visit to Egypt.
The voyage home was a swift and prosperous one, and the reception they
had when they reached Hillville was one never to be forgotten. It was
a red letter day in that household when Mr. Sturdy, almost wholly
recovered, gathered his wife and daughter in his arms. Happiness had
proved a wonderful tonic, and Mrs. Sturdy was herself again while the
roses were once more blooming in Ruth’s cheeks.
A skillful surgeon found a way to cure Mr. Sturdy utterly by removing a
splinter of skull that had been pressing on the brain, and then indeed
the Sturdy home became an earthly paradise.
Don’s exploits made him a hero with the other members of the
household, Dan and Mrs. Roscoe and Jennie, whose delight at the return
of the adventurers was only less keen than that of Ruth and Mrs.
Sturdy. Jennie, especially, threatened to create a scarcity in the
gum market, as she vigorously worked her jaws while listening with
delicious shivers to the story of his wanderings in the tomb of the
monarch, whom she persisted in calling “Ras-Paresis.”
Don shone with an added luster also in the eyes of Fred and Emily
Turner. But he laughingly evaded the pedestal on which they sought to
place him.
“It’s dad who deserves all the credit,” he said. “I only fell into the
Tombs of Gold. It was dad who led us out.”
THE END
_This Isn’t All!_
Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made in
this book?
Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and
experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author?
On the _reverse side_ of the wrapper which comes with this book, you
will find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the same
store where you got this book.
_Don’t throw away the Wrapper_
_Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have.
But in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete
catalog._
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.