CHAPTER VI--THE SIGHTS OF STAMBOUL
"Well, boys," said Professor Gunn, some days later, as the trio werelounging in their rooms after the midday meal, "what do you think ofConstantinople? Have you seen about enough of it?"
"Well, we have seen a great deal," confessed Dick. "It is a fascinatingand bewildering place, with its narrow, dirty streets, its swarms ofpeople of many races, its veiled women, its dogs, its palaces and watchtowers--in short, its thousands of strange sights."
"It is a whole lot queer," nodded Buckhart. "It gives me a right oddfeeling to stand beside a mosque and see a muezzin come out on thebalcony of a minaret and utter the call to prayer. The way he chants itkind of stirs something inside of me: 'God is great; there is but oneGod; Mohammed is the prophet of God; prayer is better than sleep; cometo prayer!' Oh, I've got her all down fine, and I'll never forget thewords nor how they sound."
"I suppose there are lots of places we have not seen, together withplenty of interesting things," said Dick. "The thing that I'll rememberlongest is the dance of the howling dervishes."
"You bet that was a corker!" exclaimed the Texan, sitting up. "I opineI've got good nerves, but it certain came near driving me crazy to seethem, a full dozen, just whirling and whirling like tops."
"Then when they began to chant and howl!" said Dick. "The way theywailed, and groaned, and cried, 'Allah, hough! Allah, hough!' was enoughto disturb nerves of steel."
"But the finish was the worst, when all the whirlers had their eyes setand their lips covered with foam. No more howling-dervish shows for me!"
"Nor me, pard!"
"Well, when you youngsters get tired of Constantinople we'll move on,"said Zenas.
"I sure would like to know whatever became of Major Fitts and MissKetchum," said Brad.
"Never mind them!" exclaimed the professor hastily. "It was a greatrelief when they both took themselves out of this hotel afterthat--after that encounter in the cemetery."
"After your bloody duel, professor," laughed Dick. "That was a fearfulencounter, from which you came forth the victor."
"But somewhat damaged myself," confessed Zenas. "Boys, you want toremember what will happen to you if you ever relate that affair to anyone."
Buckhart grinned.
"Miss Ketchum was some excited when she arrived on the scene of action.She thought the major was dying. I don't wonder, for the sounds heemitted after being struck in the mouth by that egg sure sounded like hewas coughing up the ghost."
"She certainly was disgusted when she found the major's yellow blood wassmashed rotten eggs," said Dick.
"She had the stuff all over her hands after putting her arms about him.Partner, that was a great racket!"
"Hum! haw!" coughed the professor. "Of course, on the major's account Iwas willing to carry out the programme and use eggs, but it was beneathmy dignity, and I should have preferred a regular duel with pistols orswords."
"Professor!" exclaimed Dick. "Why, you know you were somewhat timid overthe result before you learned what sort of weapons were to be used."
"Because I did not wish to have human blood on my hands. It was entirelyfor Major Fitts that I was worried."
"I opine," said Brad, "that old Aziz Achmet was just about as disgustedas any one. It is my judgment that the old pirate wanted to see theprofessor and the major carve each other up, though just what his reasonfor it was I can't say."
"He disappeared at the same time when Sarah and the major vanished,"said Dick. "He was becoming a nuisance, and I thought we might have noend of trouble with him while in this place. However, I fancy he foundout he was wasting his time spying on us. I'm still confident that Bunoland Marsh caused us to be placed under surveillance by the Turkishsecret police."
"The Turkish secret police?" exclaimed Zenas. "You don't mean tosay----"
"There is such a body, and Aziz Achmet belonged to it. We weresuspicious characters, and he watched us. But I have an idea that hefinally decided that we were exactly what we represented ourselves tobe, ordinary travelers. Miss Ketchum, however, belongs to a society thatis seeking to investigate and correct the wrongs of the Armenians inTurkey, and, therefore, Achmet transferred his attention wholly to her."
"Good gracious!" spluttered the professor. "Although she turned out tobe a hatchet-faced old maid, I hope no harm has come to her in thisheathen land."
"Don't you worry," laughed Dick. "Major Fitts will look out for her. AllI ask is that he keeps her away from us."
"I don't think the major wants to see us again," chuckled Brad. "I'msure he wouldn't fancy having the story of that duel get back toNatchez, Mississippi."
"Well, boys, shall we spend the afternoon in talk, or shall we go outand see something?" asked the professor.
They quickly decided that they were ready to go out, and once more rosethe question of what they should see.
"I have it!" cried the old pedagogue.
"Name it," urged Dick.
"The Underground Palace."
"What's that?"
"You haven't heard of it? Good! It's the very place for us to visit thisday. Wait; I'll send for Mustapha. Hope he's not engaged, for we must goover into Stamboul, and I do not fancy visiting that place without agood guide and interpreter."
"I should say not!" exclaimed Dick. "If ever there was a place just madeto get lost in it's Stamboul, with its maze of narrow, crooked, unnamedstreets and unnumbered houses."
"Correct, pard," agreed Brad. "I can get lost quicker and a heap sightworse in Stamboul than on a trackless desert. We sure must take adragoman if we're going to amble over there."
So the black Nubian, who seemed always waiting for a call, was summonedand instructed to send out for the dragoman engaged by Dick on theirarrival, to pilot them from the steamer to their hotel.
In less than thirty minutes Mustapha appeared, salaming in true Turkishfashion, the tassel of his fez sweeping the floor.
"I here, effendi," he said, addressing the professor. "What you haf ofme?"
"We want to visit Stamboul."
"I good dragoman. I guide you, effendi."
"Our purpose is to see the great underground cistern sometimes calledthe Underground Palace."
"Effendi, go not! Keep from there!" Mustapha showed great concern.
"Why should we not go there?" questioned the professor. "It is one ofthe great sights."
"You haf for your life some valuement?"
"Certainly; but what can there be dangerous about a visit to theUnderground Palace?"
"Maybe you haf not hear it, effendi?"
"Have not heard what?"
"One time some Engleeshman go there. They nefer come back."
"What happened to them?"
Mustapha made a gesture with his hands indicative of vanishing into theair.
"Who answer it the question?" he said.
"Well, well!" muttered Zenas. "What do you think about this matter,boys?"
"My interest is aroused now," answered Dick. "I want to see thismysterious place."
"That's right, pard. I'm sure some wrought up to see it myself. Ofcourse we'll go."
"Too young to haf wisdom," said Mustapha, with a gesture toward theboys.
"Come on, professor!" cried Dick. "If this dragoman will not act asguide for us, we can easily secure another."
Instantly Mustapha hastened to assure them that he would be only tooglad to act as their guide; but that they should pay him before visitingthe Underground Palace, as they might never return, in which case hewould lose his honestly earned due by neglecting to collect ahead.
They agreed to pay him in advance, and soon they set out from the hotelin Pera, eager to see the mysterious place that was said to hold so muchof mystery and danger.
In the afternoon sunshine Stamboul was magnificent when seen from adistance. But when they had crossed the Golden Horn and plunged into thecity all its impressiveness vanished. At intervals they came upon somesplendid mosques, but mosques were far more impressive when seen from
the proper distance.
Mustapha knew his business, and he conducted them to the place wherethey could descend and inspect the Underground Palace, but he declinedto enter with them. For that purpose he called another man, withclose-set, shifty eyes and a thin-lipped mouth.
"This dragoman, Bayazid," he said. "He tak' you."
"Is he trustworthy?" asked the professor, with a slight show ofnervousness.
"You not find one more so, effendi."
So Bayazid, or "Pigeon," as he was called in English, was engaged toshow them the Underground Palace.
"I haf very good boat, effendi," he declared.
"Whatever is that?" asked Buckhart. "Do we have to take a boat?"
"You will see," answered Zenas.
The entrance was somewhat like that of a sewer, but there were stonesteps leading down into the darkness of the place. The guide found andlighted two torches, which it seemed were kept for the use of those whowished to visit the Palace.
"Say, this is some boogerish!" said Brad, as they found themselves in adark and damp cemented passage.
"The old city was built above a huge system of cisterns," explained theprofessor. "Their purpose was to guard against a famine of water in timeof war. Some of the old cisterns are dry now and are used by silkspinners. We shall visit one that still contains water."
"But I thought we were going to see a palace," said Dick, indisappointment.
"You shall see one--so called."
The passage echoed to their tread, while their voices came backhollowly, as if hidden imps were mocking them.
But the boys were quite unprepared for the spectacle that suddenly mettheir gaze. They came from the passage into a mighty vaulted chamber,stretching away into an unknown distance and filled with a shadowy mazeof marble columns, row on row. The floor of this wonderful place wassmooth as a mirror and seemed black as ebony, save where the light ofthe torches fell on it. There it glittered, and gleamed, and shimmered.
Exclamations of astonishment and wonder broke from the lips of the twolads. The professor grasped them, one with either hand, and stopped themabruptly.
"We can't go farther on foot," he said.
"Eh? Why not?" asked the Texan, in surprise. "Look at that floor!Wouldn't it be great to dance on! It's smooth as glass and----"
"You would get your feet wet if you attempted to dance on that,"declared Zenas.
"What? Why--why, it's water!"
"Exactly."
"But--but it looks black everywhere except where the light strikesdirectly on it."
"Because no other ray of light reaches this place."
Dick stooped and dipped his hand in the water, which reached to theirvery feet.
"Well, this is worth seeing!" he declared.
"This was constructed by Constantine more than fifteen hundred yearsago," explained the professor. "Think, boys, what you now behold is thework of man, yet it remains practically the same as when constructedfifteen centuries ago."
"It looks like a partly submerged cathedral," murmured Dick. "One canfancy all its worshipers and priests as drowned in that flood of blackwater. In fancy I seem to see their restless spirits floating above thesurface of the lake, away, away yonder in the unknown distance. Howlarge is it, professor?"
"There are three hundred and thirty-six of those marble columns,arranged in twenty-eight rows. I fancy the real reason why Mustapharefused to enter here is because of the many legends and tales toldconcerning the place. It is said that these vaults often echo to hollowlaughter, and that the place is haunted by the ghosts of murderedsultans of past ages, whose places were usurped by the very monsters whointrigued to bring about the murders. Some claim that the spirits of thebeautiful women destroyed by jealous sultans are doomed to float foreverhere above the surface of this buried lake, and that occasionally one ofthem is seen by a visitor for a single fleeting instant, then goeswailing and sobbing into the black distance."
"Well, by the great horn spoon, I don't know that I blame Mustapha fornot coming here!" exclaimed Brad. "It's the most spooky old hole I everstruck."
At this juncture Bayazid inquired if they wished to take a boat andventure out a short distance on the water.
"Certainly," answered Dick, at once. "I think it will be a novelexperience, and I want to go. If Brad does not----"
"Hold on, pard!" cried the Texan. "Wherever you go I go, you bet yourboots! Mebbe I don't like it a heap, but I'm with you."
Bayazid left them and moved a short distance to the right. They watchedhim and saw the light of his torch fall on a black boat that laymotionless at the edge of the black lake. He stepped into the boat andsoon brought it to the shore at their feet.
Dick and Brad followed the professor into the boat, which was largeenough to accommodate two more persons, if the party had included them.
Bayazid had placed his torch in a socket that seemed arranged for it. Hesuggested that the others should extinguish theirs, as too much lightclose at hand would blind them, instead of making it possible for themto see better.
They accepted his suggestion, and slowly the boat slipped out upon thebosom of the soundless lake.
Suddenly there was a whirring rush through the air, and somethingbrushed past the head of the professor, who uttered a squawk of alarm,struck out wildly with both hands and fell over backward off his seat toflounder in the bottom of the boat.
"Howling tornadoes!" gasped Buckhart. "Whatever was that?"
"A bat, effendi," answered Bayazid.
Dick laughed.
"Goodness!" palpitated the professor, as he finally struggled up to hisseat. "I confess it did frighten me, boys. Made me think of thoserestless ghosts which are said to wander forever above the bosom of thislake. Hadn't we better go back?"
"Which way shall we go?" asked Dick.
They looked around. On every hand they saw nothing but marble pillars,shadows, and grim darkness.
"Waugh!" muttered the Texan. "I confess I couldn't follow the backtrail."
"But Bayazid knows the way, don't you, Bayazid?" anxiously asked theprofessor.
"I know it, effendi," was the assurance. "Trust me."
"I--I'm very glad you do!" breathed Zenas. "I think we will return atonce."
But Dick urged that they should go on a little farther, as Bayazid wasthoroughly familiar with the place and there was no danger that theywould become lost.
Brad always stuck by Dick, and the two overruled the old pedagogue.
Therefore Bayazid paddled slowly on. Had they seen his face they mighthave become suspicious and alarmed, but the shadows hid the crafty andtreacherous look his countenance wore.
Finally they paused again, amid the labyrinth of pillars. Without theguide, not one of them could have told which course to follow in orderto return to the point from which they started.
Suddenly Bayazid uttered an exclamation and stood up in the boat,staring into the darkness beyond his passengers.
Involuntarily the trio turned their heads to look, wondering what itcould be that the guide saw.
Barely were their heads turned in that manner when the treacherous guidesnatched the torch from its socket and plunged it into the water. Therewas a hissing sound and instant darkness.