Dick Merriwell's Pranks Part 68

Bunol had taken flight, running as fast as possible through the grove.

Instantly both lads were off in pursuit, determined not to let the scoundrel give them the slip.

"Shoot, pard!" urged Buckhart. "He may slip us if you don't!"

"And I may kill him if I do. I want to force him to tell where we may find Nadia."

"Better kill him than to let him get away," panted Brad. "If I had my gun--"

Crack! d.i.c.k fired.

There was a cry of pain ahead of them, and they saw the fleeing figure fall.

"Nailed him, d.i.c.k!" exulted Brad. "That's the ticket! That was the way to stop him!"

In truth, Merriwell had brought the fleeing Spaniard down with a single shot. In a moment they reached the fellow, who was lying on the ground, alternately cursing and groaning.

As they came up, Bunol lifted himself on his left elbow. His right hand went back. A shaft of moonlight gleamed on something in his hand.

The Texan uttered a warning cry.

d.i.c.k Merriwell dropped as if shot, and for the second time that night he did so barely in time to escape death at the hand of his bitter enemy.

The huge knife Bunol had taken from the black man whistled through the air, barely missing Merriwell as he fell.

Then Buckhart pounced on the young scoundrel.

"You dog!" grated Brad. "I sure will cook you this trip!"

But d.i.c.k interfered a moment later, checking the fury of the boy from the Pan Handle country, and preventing him from injuring the Spaniard further.

"Go ahead!" whimpered Miguel, in a way that seemed quite unusual for him. "You may as well finish the job! You have smashed my knee, and I'll bleed to death, anyhow!"

"I must have hit him in the leg," said d.i.c.k. "I fired low."

Buckhart struck a match and d.i.c.k made a hasty examination, questioning the wounded rascal. He found that Bunol had been wounded in the knee and was bleeding profusely. With his pocketknife Merriwell quickly cut away Miguel's trousers and exposed the wound.

The Spaniard lifted the upper part of his body and looked at his b.l.o.o.d.y knee. A groan escaped him, and then he began to sob. All the nerve had been taken out of him.

d.i.c.k quickly cut a strip from the lower part of Bunol's trousers leg, twisted it like a rope, tied it round the fellow's leg above the knee, inserted his pistol barrel through the loop and began to twist, thus tightening the manufactured cord until it began to cut into the flesh and checked the flow of blood.

In the meantime Brad had been questioning Bunol about Nadia, and the cowered wretch confessed that she was hidden close at hand in a portion of an excavated temple and still guarded by one of the two black men.

A distant call startled the boys. When the call was repeated they recognized it as coming from some of their friends, and they answered it.

Soon Colonel Stringer, Coddington, the professor, and Budthorne came hastening through the palm grove. As they approached, they saw a man dodging away. They ordered him to stop, but this resulted in his fleeing still more swiftly, and he quickly disappeared.

Then the colonel declared he heard a low cry, not far away. The Texan joined them, declaring Bunol had confessed that Nadia was near by. They began searching, and soon they came upon the mouth of an excavation, one of many such, made by scientists in uncovering the ruins of old Memphis.

From the depths of this opening Nadia answered his call. In a reckless, headstrong manner, the Texan let himself down into the opening, released all holds and slid to the bottom.

"Here she is!" he shouted, in delighted satisfaction. "She's all right!

Hooray! Whoop! Whoop-ee! Get a rope from the steamer and yank us out."

Medjid Bey gave an order to his engineer immediately after our friends left the yacht for the sh.o.r.e. The engineer hastened to get up steam.

This was not such a difficult task, as the fires had been kept in a condition that would enable them to move with very little delay.

The Turk leaned on the rail of his yacht and listened to every sound that came from the palm forest. Finally he spoke to the Greek, who had lingered near his master's side.

"Cast off from that steamer," he said. "Do so quietly. Don't attract attention."

Thus it happened that the captain of the steamer was surprised some moments later to discover that the yacht was floating clear of his boat.

He sang out to Medjid Bey, but the Turk made no answer.

A sound of moving machinery and puffing steam came from the yacht. The anchor was hoisted, the yacht swung round.

"It's no fight of mine," muttered the captain of the steamer, in Swedish. "Let him go. I've earned my money."

When our friends reappeared on the sh.o.r.e, accompanied by Nadia and bearing the wounded Spaniard, they discovered that the yacht was rapidly disappearing into the silver mist, far down the placid Nile.

On the return trip to Cairo Nadia told how Bunol and Medjid Bey had discovered the approaching of the steamer long before it arrived in the vicinity of the yacht. The Spaniard was confident pursuers were coming.

He wished to fight them from the yacht, but the Turk objected.

"Then put me ash.o.r.e," said Bunol. "Give me the girl and those two Nubians to take care of her. If they board your yacht, light up and keep away from them. I'm going to kill one of my enemies to-night. I'll fire from the sh.o.r.e."

And so it happened that Nadia was dragged ash.o.r.e and thrust into the excavation, the black men being left to guard her. One of them left the other, seeking to render Bunol a.s.sistance in the encounter with Buckhart; but d.i.c.k appeared in the nick of time. Finally the other took flight, and Nadia was found, exhausted and hysterical after her fearful experience, but otherwise unharmed.

When Cairo was finally reached Miguel Bunol was ghastly white and limp from the loss of blood and pain he had endured. d.i.c.k lost no time in getting the fellow into a hospital.

In the morning Merriwell visited his enemy. He wore a very sober face on returning to the Shepherd's Hotel.

"Is he dead?" asked Brad.

"No; but he may not recover. His right leg has been amputated above the knee."

"Well, I opine he's got what was his just due," said the Texan.

THE END.