CHAPTER VII--LOST ON THE BURIED LAKE
Dick Merriwell had brought along a revolver. He drew it in a moment andheld it ready for use, expecting something to happen in the Stygiandarkness of that terrible place.
Professor Gunn cried out to Bayazid, demanding to know the meaning ofhis act.
"Get hold of the onery varmint!" advised Buckhart. "Let me put my pawson him!"
The Texan floundered about, rocking the boat somewhat.
"Be careful, Brad!" warned Dick. "You don't know what he will do! It maybe intended for a joke, just to frighten us, and it may be intended forsomething else. I have a pistol. Keep away from him and let me do thebusiness."
"Pup-pup-perhaps it's pup-pup-part of the regular pup-pup-programme,"chattered Professor Gunn. "Pup-pup-perhaps they always pup-pup-put outthe tut-tut-torch when they have pup-pup-passengers on this oldunderground pup-pup-pond."
"Be quiet," directed Dick. "Bayazid."
He called to the guide, but there was no answer.
"Bayazid!"
Again he called. His voice echoed hollowly in the unseen arches abovetheir heads.
"Why doesn't the blame fool answer?" growled Buckhart.
"Strike a match, Brad," directed Dick. "I'm holding my revolver readyfor use, and I'll shoot, if necessary, the moment I can see what toshoot at."
The Texan lost little time in producing a match, but when he attemptedto strike it he failed, the brimstone breaking off. Three matches wereused before one burned. The light flared up, Buckhart holding it abovehis head. Its glow fell on the old professor and the two boys, andsimultaneously they made an amazing discovery.
They were alone in the boat!
Bayazid, the guide, had disappeared!
Dick had his revolver ready for action, and he was standing in ahalf-crouching position, peering over the head of Buckhart at the placein the boat lately occupied by the guide.
"He's gug-gone!" gasped Zenas.
Brad dropped the match, and again they were buried in darkness whichseemed to oppress them like an awful weight.
"Great catamounts!" said a voice that sounded strange and husky, butwhich Dick recognized as that of the Texan. "Where has he gone? Whatdoes it mean, partner?"
"It means that we are the victims of trickery of some sort," answeredDick, speaking in a low tone.
"It means that we are deserted to perish on the bosom of this awfulburied lake!" came from the professor, in something like a moan. "I amto blame! I brought you here!"
"But whatever could be the object?" questioned Brad, in a puzzled tone."If it's robbery----"
"It's a plot--a plot, boys! We are objects of suspicion. That agent ofthe secret police suspected us of something. In this awful city to besuspected is to be doomed."
"I can't realize it yet," muttered Dick. "How could the guide get out ofthe boat?"
"I'll strike another match, pard," said the Texan. "Keep your gun readyfor use."
"There are other torches," reminded Dick. "We placed them in the bottomof the boat. Find them, Brad, and light one."
During the interval that followed the Texan was heard feeling about thebottom of the boat. After a time he confessed:
"I can't seem to get my paws on them. I'll have to use another match.The light will show us where they are."
Another match was lighted, but, though it was held and moved about toillumine the bottom of the boat, not a torch was discovered. When theyrealized that the extinguished torches were gone they sat up and lookedinto one another's eyes by the last gleams of the exhausted match, whichBuckhart held until the blaze scorched his fingers.
For some moments silence followed.
Floating there on the motionless bosom of that black lake, no sound camedown to them from the great city overhead. The stillness was appalling,yet all feared to speak, dreading the sound of their own voices.
Finally Dick asked:
"How many matches have you, Brad?"
"Not over four or five more."
"And I have none. How about you, professor--have you any?"
"Not one," was the despairing answer.
Suddenly Buckhart grated:
"I'd like to get my paws on the treacherous dog who deserted us in thisfix! I'd certain fit him for a funeral! You hear me affirm!"
"I'm still unable to account for his action," said Dick. "If his objectis robbery, surely he has taken a strange way to go about it."
"Perhaps he's counting on frightening us good and plenty," observedBrad. "Mebbe when he thinks we're so frightened that we'll be glad tocough up liberal he will appear and offer to conduct us back to theouter world."
"Let's call to him," eagerly suggested the professor. Then he lifted hisvoice and called loudly.
When he had repeated the cry three times, they listened.
"Didn't you hear a distant answer?" asked Dick.
"I judge whatever we heard was an echo," said Brad.
After a time they lifted their voices in a united shout, and thenlistened to the mocking echoes which fled from pillar to pillar and diedin the unknown distance.
"No use!" moaned Professor Gunn. "I am satisfied that we are doomed!We'll never leave this place alive, and our fate will forever remain amystery!"
"I'm sure that was no echo!" exclaimed Dick, as far away in the darknessthey seemed to hear an answer to their repeated shouts. "Be still andlet me shout."
When he had lifted his strong, clear voice all hushed their breathingand listened.
There was a short interval, and then out of the black distance came afaint, far-away answer.
"Some one did shout, pard!" exclaimed the Texan. "It's a dead-surething!"
Excitedly they all joined in the hail that followed. The answer was moredistinct.
Dick had found an oar, and he slowly propelled the boat in the directionfrom which the answering cries seemed to come. Occasionally they bumpedagainst the marble pillars, but these collisions did no damage.
Soon they could hear the answers to their cries and knew they weredrawing nearer to the unknown person or persons who were thusresponding.
Suddenly a tiny gleam of light showed amid the pillars at some distance.
"Looks like that's a match, pard," observed Buckhart. "I reckon I'llstrike one, too."
He did so, but the other light disappeared even as he held his own abovehis head. Apparently his match was seen, for the voice of a man reachedthem, urging them to come in that direction.
By answering call for call they continued to draw nearer to thestrangers, for they soon heard enough to satisfy them that at least twopersons besides themselves were afloat on the bosom of that buried lake.
"One is a woman!" asserted Dick.
Lifting his voice, he asked:
"Who are you?"
"We are Americans. Who are yo'?"
"We are Americans, too."
"What are yo' doing here?"
"We are lost--deserted by our guide."
"So are we. How many of yo' are there?"
"Three. How many of you?"
"Two; and somebody shall suffer fo' this outrage! Somebody shall pay thepenalty fo' it! I'll have satisfaction as sho' 's my name is----"
"Major Mowbry Fitts, of Natchez, Mississippi," finished Dick.
"That's my name, suh! But yo', suh--why, is it possible that yo'are----"
"Professor Zenas Gunn, accompanied by Dick Merriwell and Brad Buckhart.Is Miss Ketchum, of Boston, with you?"
"I am here," answered the well-known voice of Sarah Ann. "We have passedthrough a most awful and excruciating experience, the faintestremembrance of which will forever seem like a fearful nightmare. I amglad you have found us, for now you can assist us in getting out of thisfrightful place."
"I am sure we would like to do so," said Dick; "but, unfortunately, likeyourselves, we do not know which way to turn. How did you get here?"
The major explained as the two boats bumped together, and floated thus.Like the professor and the boys, he and Miss Ketchum had vis
ited thelake in company with a guide, who had vanished in a mysterious andunaccountable manner. They fancied they had been afloat for days on thebosom of the lake, and they were in a pitiful condition of collapse andfright, although the major had braced up wonderfully for a time.
"This seems to be the usual manner of treating visitors," said Dick.
"We've used our last match," said the major. "I lighted it a few minutesago. We had been saving it. I am afraid we will never be able to escape.I have about given up hope."
"It is the work of that terrible Turk who urged you into the duel withProfessor Gunn, major," said the woman from Boston. "He warned us toleave Constantinople, but we refused to go, and he told us we woulddisappear mysteriously."
"Are you speaking of Aziz Achmet?" asked Dick.
"That is what he calls himself."
"Then you have seen him since the morning of the duel?"
"Seen him!" indignantly exclaimed the major. "We have seen himeverywhere, suh. He has followed us and watched us wherever we went. Wecouldn't make a move that he wouldn't turn up. Twice he told us that wemust leave the city and the country."
"I wish now," confessed Miss Ketchum, "that we had obeyed him. Don'tyou, major?"
"Well," answered the little man, with a touch of reluctance in hisvoice, "I must confess, madam, that I believe it would have been muchbetter fo' us if we had obeyed."
Barely were these words spoken when, in the pall of darkness near by, avoice demanded:
"Are you ready to depart now? Will you depart at once? Do you, one andall, swear by your God that you will lose no time about going?".
Needless to say, the sound of that voice affected them all much like asudden clap of thunder on a clear and sunny day. The woman gave a littlescream, the major uttered a smothered oath, the professor gasped forbreath, while both Dick and Brad sat bolt upright, their nerves tense.
"Answer at once!" commanded the unseen speaker. "It is your only hope ofescaping. Among the Armenians we have enough so-called missionaries,and, therefore, the woman from Boston is not wanted. In the other boatare the old man and the boys against whom the secret police have beenwarned. It will be easy to cause all of you to vanish from the face ofthe earth; yet if you pledge yourselves to leave Turkey, you shall bespared."
"I tell you one thing," spluttered Zenas Gunn eagerly, "I've seen all ofTurkey I care to see, and I'll give you my pledge to leave withintwenty-four hours, taking the boys with me."
"I'll go--oh, I'll go!" promised Miss Ketchum.
"And if she goes," said Major Fitts, "I shall accompany her."
"Swear it!"
The trio were willing enough to do so.
A few moments later a light gleamed a short distance away, and thenthree torches were lighted. Within twenty feet of them was another andlarger boat, containing four persons, three of whom were guides. Thefourth was Aziz Achmet. One of the guides was Bayazid, who grinned atthe professor and the boys, as if he thought the whole thing a finejoke. Another was the guide who had accompanied the major and the womanfrom Boston.
Achmet did not touch an oar. He sat in dignified silence as hiscompanions slowly brought the boat close to the others.
"Mr. Achmet," said Dick, "although we dislike to leave Constantinopleunder compulsion, Professor Gunn has given his pledge, and we shallstand by it. There is one thing, however, that we would like to haveexplained. How did our guide disappear in such a mysterious manner?"
Achmet shrugged his shoulders a bit. At first he seemed disinclined toanswer, but apparently he suddenly decided to do so.
"It was very simple, boy," he said. "Your guide stepped from your boatinto this one, which he had seen floating in the shadow of a pillar. Iwas in this boat, with these other guides, and I gave him a signal thathe understood. Immediately he extinguished the torch. That threw youinto confusion. This boat silently approached, and Bayazid stepped intoit. In the same manner Yapouly left the other boat."
"Thank you," said Dick. "It was altogether too easy!"
"A heap!" growled Buckhart.