CHAPTER V
A Villainous Plot
Don looked at Teddy in surprise.
“How do you know those men are rascals?” he asked. “I don’t like the looks of them myself, but I hadn’t heard anything against them.”
“I’ve heard plenty,” rejoined Teddy. “And from their own lips, though they didn’t know I heard them.”
“Spill it,” urged Don impatiently.
“Wait till I finish this pie,” replied Teddy. “That’s the most important thing I have to do just now.”
He kept on imperturbably, while Don waited in a fever of curiosity.
“Come across now,” said Don, when Teddy had finished the last crumb.
“That pie’s mighty good,” remarked Teddy, as he signaled the waiter to bring him another piece.
“I’ve seen anacondas eat,” said Don disgustedly. “But you have it all over them.”
“That’s because they never tasted pie as good as this,” remarked Teddy complacently.
He finished his second helping, and then looked around for the waiter.
“No you don’t!” exclaimed Don, jumping up and grabbing Teddy by the arm. “Come along now, or there’ll be a famine on board this ship.”
“I never thought you had such a mean disposition,” remarked the grinning Teddy, resigning himself, nevertheless, and followed his friend out on the deck.
“Now, if you want to live another minute,” said Don, when they had ensconced themselves comfortably in deck chairs, “tell me what you mean about those fellows.”
“They came along the night I was hiding in the lifeboat,” replied Teddy. “There was nobody else around that part of the deck, and they sat down within a few feet of me and began to talk. They kept their voices low and they talked in their own language, so that they felt pretty safe. But you know I picked up a good deal of Arabic while I was living in Algiers; so, though there was some difference, I could understand almost all they said.
“I didn’t pay much attention at first. They were talking about some fellow named Fellus or something like that—”
“Phalos,” interrupted Don. “That’s another Egyptian that’s on the ship. Kind of an old man, a pretty good kind of a scout, it seems to me.”
“I guess that’s the one, then,” said Teddy. “I hadn’t listened long before I knew that they were trying to put something over on this Phalos, as you call him. Then I lifted up the edge of the tarpaulin a bit, and took a peep at them. The moon was up, so I had a good look, and I knew them again the minute I saw them at the table.”
“What were they trying to put over on him?”
“Seems he’s got some papers they want to get. I couldn’t get just the rights of it, but it seemed mighty important to them. Heard one of them say it would make them rich if they could cop them. And I don’t think they’d stop at anything to get them. I heard one of them say something that means about the same thing as our ‘dead men tell no tales.’”
Just at this moment the two men they were talking about passed them. They were not sauntering, in the manner of most of the passengers, but moved as though they were bent on a purpose, like hounds on a trail.
“Look like a pair of pirates,” snorted Teddy.
“They wouldn’t take any prizes at a beauty show,” agreed Don. “Wonder what they’re up to now.”
“Something they wouldn’t want any one to know about, I bet,” Teddy conjectured.
Suddenly a thought struck Don, and he started up.
“I didn’t see Phalos at the table to-night!” he exclaimed. “He sits near us, and is usually there.”
“Well, what of it?” asked Teddy carelessly. “Perhaps he’s off his feed. And that’s where he’s different from me.”
“I suppose it was something like that,” agreed Don, sinking back again into his chair.
They chatted of other things, but Don’s mind was haunted by a feeling of uneasiness. He could not shake off a conviction that something was wrong with the benevolent old Egyptian, whom he had learned to like. He told himself that he was foolish. Still an uncomfortable feeling persisted. At last he rose with decision.
“Come along, Brick,” he said. “Let’s stretch our legs a bit.”
“Don’t feel as though I could move,” complained Teddy. “I was a trifle hearty at the table to-night.”
“A trifle!” jeered Don. “That certainly is putting it mildly! All the more reason why you should walk it off. Up you come.”
As he reinforced his urging by a vigorous tug at his friend’s sleeve, Brick yielded with a groan.
“Where are you going?” he asked, extricating himself with difficulty from the depths of his chair.
“Oh, just going to take a turn or two about the deck,” answered Don. “And if by chance we should happen to run across those two Egyptians, so much the better.”
“What have you got on your chest?” asked Teddy, with quickened interest.
“Just a little hunch of mine that they may be up to some mischief,” answered Don. “What you’ve told me about them and Phalos has made me feel uneasy, especially as the old fellow didn’t turn up at meal time.”
Teddy’s previous experiences with Don in the Sahara had given him considerable respect for his friend’s “hunches,” and he went along with alacrity.
Twice they made the circuit of the deck without seeing the people of whom they were in search. Then, in the growing dusk, Don caught a glimpse of Tezra and Nepahak emerging hurriedly from a cabin a little way ahead.
He clutched Teddy’s arm and drew him into a corridor leading from the deck, where they stood until the men had passed.
“Come along,” he said, relinquishing his hold on his friend’s arm and hastening out on deck.
“But I thought you were going to follow them!” exclaimed Teddy, as he saw that Don was going in the opposite direction.
“Not now,” replied Don. “That was Phalos’ cabin they came from, and I’m going to take a look at that first.”
In a moment the two boys were standing before the cabin in question, and Don knocked on the door.
There was no answer and no sound of any one stirring inside. Don waited a moment and then knocked again. Still no answer. Then he tried the knob. The door refused to give. It was locked.
Don looked hurriedly about and saw that the door of the room immediately adjoining was standing a little ajar. He pushed it open and found that it contained no bed but a miscellaneous collection of boxes, and was evidently a storeroom.
His eyes roved over the place and detected a transom at the side nearer the cabin of Phalos. Instantly he beckoned to Teddy and they went in, closing the door softly.
Making no noise, Don piled up some of the boxes and stood on them. This brought his head to a level with the transom.
For a moment he could make out nothing definite in the cabin. Then, as his eyes grew accustomed to the shadows, he saw the form of Phalos sitting in a chair. Looking closer, he saw that the old man was tightly bound and that a gag had been thrust into his mouth.
Teddy also had mounted the boxes and stood at Don’s side.
“Do you see that?” asked Don, in a whisper. “There isn’t a minute to lose.”
“What should we do?” exclaimed Teddy.
Don tried the transom and found that it swung toward him. He pulled it still further forward and fastened it to a hook above his head.
The aperture was none too large, but sufficient to permit the passage of his body.
“Come after me as soon as you can,” directed Don, as he swung himself up and through the opening.
He dropped lightly on the other side and a moment later Teddy had followed him.
They rushed to the chair in which the old Egyptian was fastened. His eyes, which had been closed, opened with a look of terror, to be quickly replaced by one of hope as he recognized Don.
In a trice the boys had pulled out their jack-knives and were sawing away at the cords that bound the captive. In a few minutes they succeeded in freeing him from bonds and gag.
The old Egyptian tried to speak, but his tongue at first refused to obey him.
“How can I thank you?” he said, at last, to the boys, who were rubbing his wrists and hands to restore the circulation. “How can I reward you? You’ve saved my property, and perhaps you’ve saved my life.”
“That’s all right,” replied Don. “We’re glad we came in time.”
“But how did you know what had happened to me?” asked Phalos.
“We saw those countrymen of yours coming from the cabin,” explained Don. “We knew that they were enemies of yours, and as you hadn’t turned up at meal time, we thought there was something wrong. What have those men got against you that they should treat you this way?”
“They are robbers,” replied Phalos. “They knew that I had a great secret—” Here he checked himself and darted a quick glance at his deliverers. “That is, they know I have some valuable property which they want to take from me.”
“Where are they now?” asked Don.
“They’ve gone to their own cabin to get implements to torture me with,” was the startling reply. “I refused to tell them what they wanted, and they said they would find a way to cure my stubbornness. They may be back at any minute. We must get out of here at once.”
“Right you are!” exclaimed Don. “We’ll report the matter to the captain and have the rascals arrested. Come right along. You take one arm, Brick, and I’ll steady him on the other side.”
They helped the old Egyptian to his feet. Just then they heard the grating of a key in the lock.
“It’s Tezra and Nepahak!” exclaimed the Egyptian, in an agitated whisper. “They’re coming back.”
Don’s eyes darted about the room and fell on the curtains shielding the bed.
“Sit there,” he commanded, thrusting Phalos back in his chair. “Come, Brick.”
In a flash the two boys were behind the curtains.
The stateroom door opened, and Tezra and Nepahak entered, the latter carrying several objects that by their faint clinking seemed to be steel tools or implements of some kind.
Phalos had settled back in his chair, and in the gathering darkness seemed to be in the same condition as the rascals had left him.
Nepahak stepped over to the electric switch, but his accomplice halted him sharply.
“Don’t turn on that light, you fool,” he snarled. “This flashlight of mine will give us all the light we need.”
He stepped over to the silent figure in the chair.
“Now, Phalos, we’re going to make you listen to reason,” he said in a tone of deadly determination. “We haven’t followed you half-way around the world to be balked at last. We know that you have the secret of the Tombs of Gold, and we’re going to get it from you. If you tell it to us, we will release you and you won’t be hurt. If you refuse, we have something here that will make you tell. And if we have to torture you, you will wish you had never been born. Now I’m going to take that gag from your mouth, so that you can tell me your decision.”
He turned to his companion.
“Come here, Nepahak,” he commanded. “Stand on that side of him while I remove the gag. Clap your hand over his mouth if he should try to shout an alarm. But first hand me the flashlight.”
He took the light his confederate handed to him and flashed it on the face of his intended victim.
A wild exclamation escaped from him as he noticed the absence of the gag and saw also that the cords had been cut.
“Who has been here?” he cried, in alarm. “What does this mean? Come back here, you,” he called to Nepahak, who was already making toward the door, intent upon escape.
“Now!” whispered Don, touching Teddy’s arm.