CHAPTER III
Off for Egypt
“It would be too bad to have anything like that happen, Don,” was the laughing reply of Fred, as he helped his sister into the car and followed her. “So fire away and let’s have it.”
“Oh, you don’t mean, Don, that you’ve heard from your parents?” asked Emily eagerly. “I can’t imagine anything else that would make you so happy.”
“It’s just that!” declared Don jubilantly. “Got a cablegram from my mother. She’s in Egypt, and we’re going right over there to get her and bring her home.”
Emily gave a little squeal of delight and Fred grabbed Don’s hand with a fervor that made him wince.
“Glory hallelujah!” cried Fred. “Isn’t that splendid!”
“Oh, Don, I’m so glad and thankful!” exclaimed Emily. “Now Ruth will get well in a hurry. It’s just that awful worry that’s made her so weak and ill. How did she take it?”
“Too happy for words,” replied Don. “It will do her more good than all the tonics and medicines in the world.”
“Your father is with your mother, I suppose,” remarked Fred.
“No,” replied Don slowly, his tone tinctured with soberness. “That’s the one bad thing in the news. He’s disappeared, and mother doesn’t know where he is. We’re going over to hunt him up. But at least we know that he was alive nearly up to the time she cabled, and that’s a whole lot in itself.”
By this time the car had reached the house. Captain Sturdy went inside to discuss the coming trip with Professor Bruce. Don and Fred sat down on the porch, while Emily rushed inside to rejoice with Ruth over her new-found happiness.
Fred and Emily Turner were orphans, who lived at a little distance from the Sturdy home. Their first acquaintance with Don dated from the time just before his journey to Brazil when Don had saved Emily from a raging torrent into which she had fallen. Fred at that time was badly crippled, so badly, in fact, that his recovery seemed hopeless. The orphans were also in bad financial circumstances, and the small estate in stocks and bonds that had been left them by their father had been taken from them by a heartless swindler.
A warm friendship sprang up between Don and the young folks, and the former enlisted the help of his uncles in their behalf. The story of what was done for the Turners by Professor Bruce and Captain Sturdy and how Fred was cured of his lameness and made as strong and well as other lads of his age has been narrated in the preceding volume.
Don and Fred had been chatting for a few minutes on the porch when the telephone bell rang. Don excused himself and went inside to answer it.
“Hello!” came the call. “Is that you, Don? This is Brick.”
“Bully!” cried Don, as he realized that his caller was Teddy Allison, nicknamed Brick because of his mop of fiery red hair. “I’ve been wondering why I hadn’t heard from you.”
“Been plugging away at my books,” growled Brick. “But vacation will be here in a few days now, and I’m going to make tracks to Hillville just as soon as I can get away. I’m crazy to hear all about your trip to Brazil.”
“You haven’t been any crazier than I’ve been to have you come,” replied Don. “But, Brick, old boy, I’m afraid I won’t be here when your vacation begins. I’m going to Egypt.”
There was an exclamation at the other end of the wire as though Brick had been stunned. Don went on to explain the good news he had received and Teddy was overjoyed.
“It’s glorious, Don!” he said. “It’s the best news I’ve heard in months. But, say, Don, if you’re going to Egypt, why can’t I go along?”
“That would be great,” responded Don enthusiastically. “I’d be tickled to death. And I’m sure my uncles would have no objection. You know what they think of you. They think you’re about the finest boy that ever wore shoes. But how about your father? Would he be willing to have you go?”
“He isn’t in New York, worse luck,” replied Brick. “He’s gone out West on a business matter. But I’ll try to get him by telegraph or long distance ’phone. Oh, Don, I’ve just got to go with you! I’ll go if I have to swim!”
“Pretty long swim,” laughed Don. “But do your best, old boy, and I’ll talk to my uncles; though I’m sure they’ll be willing.”
The boys talked for a few minutes longer, and then Don hung up the receiver and rejoined Fred on the porch.
“From Brick Allison,” he explained. “He’s wild to go with us to Egypt.”
“I don’t wonder,” commented Fred. “But now, Don,” he went on, rising as Emily came out on the porch, “I guess we’d better go, for I know you’ll have a thousand things to do in getting ready for your trip on such short notice.”
The next few days were busy ones. Clothes suitable for the hot climate of Egypt had to be bought, arrangements made for letters of credit, passages booked on the steamer, and a host of other details attended to that had to be crowded into their hurried preparations.
The captain and professor kept the wires hot in their calls on the various shipping offices, and were delighted to find that they could get passage on a steamer going directly to Alexandria in Egypt, thus obviating the necessity of going to England first, an arrangement that would save them several days. At a time when every day counted, this was an item of prime importance.
No answering cable had come from Mrs. Sturdy, a fact that increased their uneasiness and gave an added intensity to their longing to be off.
Nor had Teddy ’phoned again, except once to tell Don that he was trying frantically to get in touch with his father but had not yet succeeded. But no other message followed, and Don was forced reluctantly to give up hope of his boy friend taking the trip with him.
The day came at last when they were to go to New York, there to board the Cleopatra, the vessel on which their passage was booked. There were tender partings from Ruth, in whose cheeks the roses were again coming from the knowledge that her mother was alive. They promised to keep in frequent touch with her by cable.
There were warm good wishes also from Dan and Mrs. Roscoe and Jenny. The hired girl’s agitated feelings were revealed by the unusual vigor with which she chewed her gum.
“Good-bye, Mister Don,” she whimpered. “Don’t get trompled by no cambles an’ don’t get et by no crockumdiles an’ don’t fall down in none of them Egypt tombs.”
Don promised that he would be careful, and the party stepped into the car and were driven down by Dan to the station, where they took the train to New York.
The Cleopatra was to sail the next morning at eleven, and two hours earlier Don and his uncles went on board. The ship was new and well equipped, their staterooms were favorably located and satisfactorily furnished, and to all appearance they would have a comfortable and, they hoped, a speedy voyage.
Don quickly arranged his belongings in his cabin and then went out on deck, which was humming with the activity always prevailing on a steamer on the point of sailing. He hung over the rail looking eagerly for one particular face among the many that thronged the pier. In his last talk with Teddy he had told him of the steamer he would take and the day and hour of sailing, and he confidently expected that his chum would be on hand to see him off.
But Teddy did not appear, and when at last the gangplank was drawn in and the great vessel edged her way out into the river, Don turned away with a feeling of disappointment. What on earth had kept his friend from being on hand? It was not like Teddy to fail him in anything.
But though a sore spot remained in his heart, the first days of the voyage were full of interesting things to engross his attention. The weather was fine, and he spent most of the time on deck, enjoying the cool breezes, the never ending fascination of the ocean, and studying his fellow passengers.
These last embraced more varied types than usual, because many of them were natives of countries that bordered on the Mediterranean and were clad in the picturesque garb of their various lands. There were many Greeks, Algerians, Tunisians and Egyptians, the latter of whom were of special interest because of the preëminent place that Egypt held in his thoughts.
Three whose dress proclaimed that they belonged to the land of the Nile particularly attracted his notice.
One was an elderly man of benevolent expression, with deep piercing eyes peering out from beneath shaggy eyebrows. He seemed a sage and a scholar, rich in wisdom and experience. Don instinctively liked him without exactly knowing why. His name, as the boy ascertained from one of the deck stewards, was Zata Phalos.
Two other Egyptians, who, as Don learned from the same source, bore the names of Tezra and Nepahak, aroused in Don a feeling of suspicion and distrust. They were always together, and usually conversing in low tones, as though fearing to be overheard. From glances they cast frequently at Phalos, accompanied by a vindictive glitter, Don judged that the latter was the subject of their conversation.
Tezra was tall and stoop-shouldered, while Nepahak was fat, short and oily. Don noticed that Tezra did most of the talking, while Nepahak assented by nods or objected in monosyllables. Tezra was apparently the dominant character of the two. To Don, the faces of both bore the stamp of evil.
“Those birds will bear watching,” Don muttered to himself. “I’d hate to be at their mercy if they had an object in injuring me.”
On the third afternoon out Don noticed a certain confusion about one of the hatchways. A number of the crew seemed to be hauling about rather roughly a figure that was obscured by the crowd.
“What’s the matter?” asked Don of a steward who came hurrying past him.
“They’ve nabbed a stowaway,” was the reply.
“Poor fellow,” thought Don. He knew that a stowaway was about as popular with a ship’s officers and crew as a rattlesnake at a picnic party. “I suppose they’ll make him work out his passage in the stokehole for the rest of the voyage.”
Just then a petty officer came up to where Don was seated in his deck chair between those occupied by the captain and the professor.
“Beg pardon, sir,” he said, addressing the captain, “but we have a stowaway there who insists on seeing the Sturdys and Professor Bruce. Just sheer impudence, I suppose, but I thought I’d tell you, sir.”
Don and his uncles looked at each other in astonishment.
“What on earth can that mean?” cried the captain, jumping to his feet and striding toward the hatchway, closely followed by Don and the professor.
The crowd opened as they approached, and their astounded eyes fell on—Teddy Allison!