CHAPTER VIII--ON THE WAY TO DAMASCUS
They succeeded in securing passage on a steamer that left the port thefollowing day. Major Fitts and Miss Ketchum left by the same steamer.
"I hope yo' will congratulate me, professor," said the major, as proudas a peacock. "Miss Ketchum has consented to become Mrs. Fitts as soonas we reach the United States. I'm sorry fo' yo', suh; but yo' neverreally had a show, suh."
"That's right, major," smiled Dick. "He didn't have a show, because heis 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 notbear to be parted from one so young and charming as Miss Ketchum, werehe to have the good fortune to capture her."
"Saved your life, you rascal!" whispered Zenas, and then hastened to bowlow to the coy and confused lady from Boston.
At Beirut the party split up, the professor and the boys going toDamascus, a distance of ninety-one miles, which was covered by anexcellent narrow-gauge railroad, built by Swiss engineers.
"We're off, boys!" cheerfully exclaimed the professor, as the trainfinally started. "We'll soon be in the oldest city in the world."
"Do you mean Damascus, professor?" inquired Dick.
"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 theworld. There may be older cities in China or India."
"There may be," admitted the old pedagogue; "but we do not know aboutthem. 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. Youkeep yourself too well posted about the countries and places we visit,and thus you deprive me of the privilege of imparting information toyou. It isn't right. You make me feel that I am not earning my stipendas your guardian and tutor during this trip round the world. You placeme in an embarrassing position. I wish you would feign ignorance, if youcannot do anything else."
Dick laughed.
"All right, professor; I'll try to reform. But it was your advice to usthat we should post ourselves in advance on each place we visited, andI'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 timereading up about different countries and cities."
"Sure not," admitted the Texan. "It's a heap too much trouble, for Iknow I'll hear about the places from you and Dick when we hit 'em. Thisyere country sort of looks familiar."
"It does," nodded Dick. "To me it looks like Southern Colorado orNorthern New Mexico. It's a land of irrigation. The mountains, theplains, the foliage, the mud houses, everything but the people, remindme of that portion of our own country."
"Quite true," agreed Zenas Gunn; "although the fertile spots here haveall been taken up and cultivated. For instance, look there, boys--lookat that mountainside."
Gazing from the window as the train sped along, they could see the sideof a mountain walled up in terraces like gigantic stairways, to preventthe soil from being washed away by the rainfalls. These terraces wereplanted with grapes, figs, olive and mulberry trees. On many of theseterraces laborers were at work propping up strange-looking trunks, whichwere six or seven feet high. In places these trunks could be seenreclining in rows on the ground, looking strangely like sleepingsoldiers.
"Those are grapevines," exclaimed the professor. "In the fall they cutthem down to that height and lay them flat on the ground, as you seethem. They are now beginning to prop them up. They will be irrigated anddressed, and then new branches will shoot out in all directions andcover the soil and bear fruit."
As the train wound in and out of the gorges, clinging to themountainsides, they beheld many strange and interesting things. Laborerswere setting out mulberry trees in long trenches. Other laborers weredigging the trenches, three men working a single shovel. One of the menmanipulated the shovel, holding the handle and driving it down into thesoil. Two others lifted it out with its load, doing so by pulling atropes attached to the shovel just above the blade. They all workedtogether with astonishing ease and skill. Great hedges of cactusstretched along the railroad in many places. They gazed with interest atthe old-fashioned irrigating canals. They beheld men plowing with thesame sort of crooked stick that was used for that purpose in Bibletimes. But there were no farmhouses scattered over the country, for thepeople still lived in villages, as they did in former days, when it wasnecessary for neighbors to band together for protection.
For a great portion of the way the railroad followed the old caravantrail, and all along this trail were scattered trains of camels anddonkeys, loaded with all kinds of goods, such as silk, cotton, grain,machinery, poplar trees, fuel, and other things. Petroleum, however,seemed to form the greater portion of many a cargo.
The sun shone from a cloudless sky.
Brad Buckhart was strangely silent. He gazed out of the window in anabstracted manner, paying very little attention to what the professorand Dick were saying.
Finally Dick began to joke him about his unusual manner.
"Don't worry, Brad," he laughed. "We'll overtake her soon. We may findher in Damascus."
"Her?" grunted the Texan.
"Yes."
"Why, who----"
"Nadia Budthorne, of course. Her last letter told you she would visitDamascus and then proceed to Jerusalem, in company with her brother. Youcan't fool me, old man. You have been counting on overtaking hersomewhere in the Holy Land. Don't deny it."
"All right," said Buckhart, his face flushed, but his manner a bitdefiant; "I won't deny it, Mr. Smarty. You sure have hit it all right.I----"
At this moment the whistle of the locomotive shrieked a wild alarm andthe brakes were applied violently. Something was wrong. The train cameto a stop.
And just outside the window of the compartment occupied by the oldprofessor and two boys a dead camel lay stretched on the ground, bloodflowing from several horrible wounds. The animal's pack was broken openand the goods scattered in all directions.
Not ten feet from the camel lay a gorgeously dressed, black-beardedArab, likewise apparently dead.
"Whoop!" cried Buckhart. "There certain have been some doings here! Iopine the camel tried to butt the train off the track, somewhat to thegrief of Mr. Camel."
Men now came running toward the spot, all greatly excited. They wereprincipally camel drivers and like men from a caravan. They gatheredabout the prostrate Arab and made a great demonstration. Their gesturestoward the train were very threatening.
One of the guards flung open the door of the compartment occupied by ourfriends.
"Is there a doctor here?" he asked anxiously. "A serious accident hashappened."
In a moment Dick Merriwell sprang out, followed by Brad. They did notwait to enter into conversation with the guard, but started toward thedead camel and the motionless Arab.
Others from the train were doing the same thing, and the boys learnedfrom fragments of conversation that the Arab had been struck by theengine while endeavoring to drive from the track the camel that hadstrayed onto the railroad and obstinately refused to budge.
At that point the train came round a sharp curve, and the engineer wasunable to see either camel or man until right upon them.
Later the boys learned that the camel was loaded with certain articlesof great importance, which had led the Arab to imperil his life in theeffort to drive the beast from the track.
"He seems to be some sort of high mogul in his tribe," observedBuckhart, as he and Dick paused and surveyed the injured man.
"He is a sheik of great power and influence," explained a man standingnear. "That is why the railroad people are so concern
ed. If he were anordinary camel driver or donkey man, they wouldn't stop a minute tobother over him."
"I wonder if he is really dead?" muttered Dick, stepping forward.
In a moment he was kneeling beside the unconscious man. Deftly he beganto make an examination, seeking for broken bones.
A number of Arabs were about, their heads tied up and their feet andlegs bare, as is their custom in all sorts of weather. One of theseobjected when Dick began the examination, but a husky fellow preventedthe chap from attacking the American boy.
"I don't believe he is dead," declared Dick. "Doesn't seem to have anybroken bones. He's stunned--just has the breath knocked out of him. Giveme a hand, Brad; let's see if we can't revive him."
The Texan responded promptly.
"What do you want me to do, pard?" he inquired.
"We'll try artificial respiration," said Merriwell. "You work his lungswhile I work his arms."
What followed caused the wildest excitement among the watching Arabs,for Buckhart knelt astride the body of the old sheik and began a regularand steady pumplike movement on the lower part of his breast, while Dickseized the man's arms, pulled them at full length above the Arab's head,then bent them back suddenly and pressed them to his sides. The two boysworked together in perfect unison.
Some of the Arabs cried out that the infidels were defiling the dead.Two or three of them drew weapons and would have rushed on the boys; butthe same husky fellow, who had checked them before now, produced apistol and averred that he would "blow daylight" through the whole ofthem if they did not keep still.
In this manner they were temporarily checked, and that brief check gaveMerriwell time enough to accomplish his purpose.
A low moan and a convulsive gasp came from the lips of the man overwhich the boys were working. Signs of returning consciousness werepronounced. His breast heaved. The boys ceased their work. For hebreathed.
An Englishman held out a flask of whisky.
"Give him a swallow of this," he advised.
Dick pushed it away.
"Water," he called. "That will be better for him."
"Allah! Allah!" cried the astounded Arabs. "The infidels are magicians!They have restored the dead to life! Ras al Had lives again!"
Some of them prostrated themselves in the dust. Others hastened to bringwater.
Dick took a canteen and turned a little of the liquid between the lipsof the injured man. He swallowed it greedily, coughed a little, and thenlay gazing in a puzzled manner at the face of the American boy.
Finally, in very good English, he asked what had happened. His voice wasweak and husky, yet his words were plain.
"You were struck by the train," explained Merriwell. "Your camel waskilled, and you seemed to be dead; but I think you are all right now."
"For which you may thank this boy and his friend here," said the huskychap, who had protected the boys. "To all appearances, you were as deadas old Mohammed; but they pumped the breath back into you in a hurry."
Several of the Arabs now brought cushions, which were placed beneath thehead and shoulders of the sheik. One of them spoke to him hurriedly in alow tone, and seemed telling him all about what had taken place. Whenthis man had finished speaking the sheik made a gesture with his handand bade him retire.
He then called for Dick.
"Be careful, Richard," cautioned Professor Gunn. "These men aretreacherous. There's no telling what he means to do."
Dick laughed and stepped nearer to the sheik.
"Boy," said the old Arab, "they tell me that I was dead, and by yourinfidel magic you brought life back into my body."
"You were unconscious, that was all. The shock had driven the breathfrom your body, and we simply revived the action of your lungs."
"Had you not done so----"
"You sure would have croaked for fair," put in Buckhart.
"What you ask of me, if it is in my power, I will give," declared thesheik. "That is the word of Ras al Had, and, though no pledge to aninfidel is binding, may the wrath of Allah fall on me if I break thisone. Speak."
"If you think I did it for pay of any sort, you are mistaken," said theyoung American, with a touch of resentment. "You can't reward me for athing like that."
"Then if ever you are in need or in danger, and I can be of service, thesword and the life of Ras al Had shall be at your command. I swear thisby the beard of the Prophet!"
"All aboard!" shouted a voice. "Train's going to start."
There was a general rush for the cars.