Dick Merriwell's Pranks Part 15

"I am here," answered the well-known voice of Sarah Ann. "We have pa.s.sed through a most awful and excruciating experience, the faintest remembrance of which will forever seem like a fearful nightmare. I am glad you have found us, for now you can a.s.sist us in getting out of this frightful place."

"I am sure we would like to do so," said d.i.c.k; "but, unfortunately, like yourselves, we do not know which way to turn. How did you get here?"

The major explained as the two boats b.u.mped together, and floated thus.

Like the professor and the boys, he and Miss Ketchum had visited the lake in company with a guide, who had vanished in a mysterious and unaccountable manner. They fancied they had been afloat for days on the bosom of the lake, and they were in a pitiful condition of collapse and fright, although the major had braced up wonderfully for a time.

"This seems to be the usual manner of treating visitors," said d.i.c.k.

"We've used our last match," said the major. "I lighted it a few minutes ago. We had been saving it. I am afraid we will never be able to escape.

I have about given up hope."

"It is the work of that terrible Turk who urged you into the duel with Professor Gunn, major," said the woman from Boston. "He warned us to leave Constantinople, but we refused to go, and he told us we would disappear mysteriously."

"Are you speaking of Aziz Achmet?" asked d.i.c.k.

"That is what he calls himself."

"Then you have seen him since the morning of the duel?"

"Seen him!" indignantly exclaimed the major. "We have seen him everywhere, suh. He has followed us and watched us wherever we went. We couldn't make a move that he wouldn't turn up. Twice he told us that we must leave the city and the country."

"I wish now," confessed Miss Ketchum, "that we had obeyed him. Don't you, major?"

"Well," answered the little man, with a touch of reluctance in his voice, "I must confess, madam, that I believe it would have been much better fo' us if we had obeyed."

Barely were these words spoken when, in the pall of darkness near by, a voice demanded:

"Are you ready to depart now? Will you depart at once? Do you, one and all, swear by your G.o.d that you will lose no time about going?".

Needless to say, the sound of that voice affected them all much like a sudden clap of thunder on a clear and sunny day. The woman gave a little scream, the major uttered a smothered oath, the professor gasped for breath, while both d.i.c.k and Brad sat bolt upright, their nerves tense.

"Answer at once!" commanded the unseen speaker. "It is your only hope of escaping. Among the Armenians we have enough so-called missionaries, and, therefore, the woman from Boston is not wanted. In the other boat are the old man and the boys against whom the secret police have been warned. It will be easy to cause all of you to vanish from the face of the earth; yet if you pledge yourselves to leave Turkey, you shall be spared."

"I tell you one thing," spluttered Zenas Gunn eagerly, "I've seen all of Turkey I care to see, and I'll give you my pledge to leave within twenty-four hours, taking the boys with me."

"I'll go-oh, I'll go!" promised Miss Ketchum.

"And if she goes," said Major Fitts, "I shall accompany her."

"Swear it!"

The trio were willing enough to do so.

A few moments later a light gleamed a short distance away, and then three torches were lighted. Within twenty feet of them was another and larger boat, containing four persons, three of whom were guides. The fourth was Aziz Achmet. One of the guides was Bayazid, who grinned at the professor and the boys, as if he thought the whole thing a fine joke. Another was the guide who had accompanied the major and the woman from Boston.

Achmet did not touch an oar. He sat in dignified silence as his companions slowly brought the boat close to the others.

"Mr. Achmet," said d.i.c.k, "although we dislike to leave Constantinople under compulsion, Professor Gunn has given his pledge, and we shall stand by it. There is one thing, however, that we would like to have explained. How did our guide disappear in such a mysterious manner?"

Achmet shrugged his shoulders a bit. At first he seemed disinclined to answer, but apparently he suddenly decided to do so.

"It was very simple, boy," he said. "Your guide stepped from your boat into this one, which he had seen floating in the shadow of a pillar. I was in this boat, with these other guides, and I gave him a signal that he understood. Immediately he extinguished the torch. That threw you into confusion. This boat silently approached, and Bayazid stepped into it. In the same manner Yapouly left the other boat."

"Thank you," said d.i.c.k. "It was altogether too easy!"

"A heap!" growled Buckhart.

CHAPTER VIII-ON THE WAY TO DAMASCUS

They succeeded in securing pa.s.sage on a steamer that left the port the following day. Major Fitts and Miss Ketchum left by the same steamer.

"I hope yo' will congratulate me, professor," said the major, as proud as a peac.o.c.k. "Miss Ketchum has consented to become Mrs. Fitts as soon as we reach the United States. I'm sorry fo' yo', suh; but yo' never really had a show, suh."

"That's right, major," smiled d.i.c.k. "He didn't have a show, because he is already--"

"Don't you dare tell I'm married!" hissed Zenas, in the boy's ear.

"He is all ready to carry out his plan to penetrate the wilds of Africa, where it would be impossible for him to take a bride, and he could not bear to be parted from one so young and charming as Miss Ketchum, were he to have the good fortune to capture her."

"Saved your life, you rascal!" whispered Zenas, and then hastened to bow low to the coy and confused lady from Boston.

At Beirut the party split up, the professor and the boys going to Damascus, a distance of ninety-one miles, which was covered by an excellent narrow-gauge railroad, built by Swiss engineers.

"We're off, boys!" cheerfully exclaimed the professor, as the train finally started. "We'll soon be in the oldest city in the world."

"Do you mean Damascus, professor?" inquired d.i.c.k.

"Of course I mean Damascus! We're not bound for any other place, are we?

Did you think I meant New York? Did you fancy I was speaking of Hoboken?

Hum! Haw!"

"But there is no absolute proof that Damascus is the oldest city in the world. There may be older cities in China or India."

"There may be," admitted the old pedagogue; "but we do not know about them. At least, Damascus is the oldest city we know anything about."

"That is quite true. If you had said that--"

"Now look here, Richard, you are inclined to be altogether too wise. You keep yourself too well posted about the countries and places we visit, and thus you deprive me of the privilege of imparting information to you. It isn't right. You make me feel that I am not earning my stipend as your guardian and tutor during this trip round the world. You place me in an embarra.s.sing position. I wish you would feign ignorance, if you cannot do anything else."

d.i.c.k laughed.

"All right, professor; I'll try to reform. But it was your advice to us that we should post ourselves in advance on each place we visited, and I've been obeying instructions, that's all."

"Haw! Hum! You're inclined to be too obedient-altogether too obedient.

Now here is Bradley-I haven't observed that he has wasted much time reading up about different countries and cities."