The Battleship Boys in Foreign Service; or, Earning New Ratings in European Seas

by Frank Gee Patchin

  CHAPTER XX

  CALLING ON THE MUMMIES

  For a full mile they made the red-headed boy run. Then, at Dan'scommand, a camel was made to kneel, and the perspiring coxswain waspermitted to climb the animal's hump.

  "That--that was a mean trick," growled Sam. "I'll even up with you forthat, Dan Davis!"

  Dan laughed happily.

  "You needed the exercise. It will put you in good shape for climbing thePyramids."

  A few minutes more of riding brought them to the feet of theseawe-inspiring monuments, and with the aid of their guides the jackiesscrambled up the sides of the Great Pyramid.

  "We must see the tombs on the inside of the Pyramid, fellows," cried Danafter they had descended by skips and jumps the long steps of thePyramid.

  "Yes," cried Sam. "I promised to give the regards of the stay-at-homesto the mummies."

  The guides lighted long wax tapers, and they entered the dark,ill-ventilated passage leading into the great pile of masonry.

  "Whew!" said Dan. "I don't wonder mummies have that dark-brown color,if they have baked in this oven a few hundred years. Guide, is there anyone in here except our party?"

  "No. Why?"

  "I saw two men, I thought, in one of those passages to the right."

  "It's nothing but a mummy ghost," suggested a shipmate.

  All at once they emerged into a great high-domed chamber, the walls ofwhich were covered with strange carvings.

  "What station is this?" questioned Dan.

  "The King's Chamber," replied the guide.

  "What is the King's name?" he asked.

  "Not know. Dead maybe two thousand years."

  "Two thousand years? He must have known our boatswain," said Hickeysolemnly.

  The others began asking questions, and Dan, walking to the other side ofthe chamber, began examining the inscriptions on the walls. He wasstanding near a corridor when suddenly he became conscious of a shadowcoming between himself and the light. He started, then peered into thelong corridor.

  "What are you looking for?" demanded Sam, who had come up behind Dan atthat moment.

  "I think there is some one out there," he replied. "I saw shadowsagain."

  "Do you really think some of those old kings are nosing around here?"

  Dan laughed softly.

  "I'll risk their getting out. I think some of our fellows are playingtricks on us. What do you say to our turning the tables on them? We'llhide in the corridor, and give them a scare when they creep up to seewhere we are."

  Davis and Hickey crept along on their hands and knees, chuckling softlyover the scare they were about to give their mates.

  "Sh-h-h-h," warned Dan suddenly, in a low voice. "I heard something."

  "Was--was it the boys?"

  "I don't know. I heard some one whisper, and it wasn't in English,either. Be careful."

  The passageway had curved abruptly, going off in another direction, butin the intense darkness they did not notice this.

  Suddenly Dan touched his friend's arm.

  "The light in the King's Chamber has gone."

  "Call out."

  "No, no. We will turn and go back. We were foolish to try a thing ofthis sort."

  Keeping close together, the boys began crawling rapidly. All at once Danstopped.

  "We surely should have reached the King's Chamber before this," hedeclared.

  "Maybe we have gone on past it?"

  "I think not. We should have recognized the place had we passed throughit."

  "Then there's only one thing to do--whoop her up until the mummies turnover."

  "I guess you are right."

  Dan uttered a loud hello. There was no answer. Sam shouted, with nobetter result.

  "Sam, we've been left alone in the dark this time--we're lost in theGreat Pyramid."

  Meanwhile the other bluejackets had finished their tour and had emergedinto the bright sunlight.

  While taking up a collection to settle with the guide, Spunk McGraw, afriend of the Battleship Boys, suddenly looked up.

  "See here, where's that red-headed boy?" he demanded.

  "He's hidden so he won't have to hand out when the plate's passed,"answered a joking voice.

  "And Dan Davis is missing, too," said McGraw, with a scared look on hisface.

  "They're not going back on the train," one of the jackies volunteered."They said they were going back part way on the camels."

  "Oh, that's it, then," answered McGraw in a relieved tone. "Let's go tothe station and find out what time we can get a train."

  And no more thought was given to Dan and Sam until the boatswain's matefound them missing at rollcall back in Cairo that evening.

  "Did they come back with you?" the mate questioned.

  "No, sir," replied Spunk McGraw. "I think they were going back to theplace where we change cars by way of the camels."

  "They may have been held up on that camel ride, sir," spoke up one ofthe men, "but they may be on the train following. You can't keep Davisand Hickey in one place against their will for very long."

  A ripple of laughter ran along the line at this, but when the next traincame wheezing in with no Battleship Boys, the mate looked grave.

  "It is my opinion that those men are lost in the Pyramid," he announcedwith solemn emphasis. "I want ten men to go back with me to find them.The rest of you will leave for Suez under McGraw's command on themidnight train."

  Within half an hour he had procured an automobile and two Pyramidguides, and with his detail of jackies had departed for the Pyramids.

  Back in the Pyramid the Battleship Boys were still lost and in utterdarkness.

  "What's the matter with our following the passageway back to the King'sChamber?" asked Sam Hickey.

  "For the reason, Sam, that we do not know where the chamber is."

  "I guess you're right," he agreed.

  "Come along; we'll try it in this direction," said Dan. "Keep hold of myhand. We do not want to get separated."

  The lads made their way along through corridor after corridor. Theycould see nothing save now and then when they lighted a match.

  "Hark!"

  Dan gripped his companion's arm sharply.

  "I heard something again."

  Their voices had dropped to whispers.

  "It might have been some animal, and we have nothing to defend ourselveswith," said Dan Davis.

  "We have our knives," answered Sam.

  "Yes; we'll use them if we meet any four-footed enemies. Strike anothermatch, please."

  Sam did so at once. Instantly something happened. As the match flaredup, blinding them for the moment, Sam leaped into the air.

  "Wow!" he howled. "Look ou----"

  Dan uttered an exclamation before Sam had finished the sentence.Something had given him a violent push from behind. At the same instantDan Davis was served in a similar manner. Instead of jumping, however,he whirled with the intention of grappling with his assailant, whoeverhe might be.

  Another push sent him reeling backward. He grasped wildly for somethingto check his fall, but his hands slipped along the smooth rock.

  "I must be going all of a mile a minute," thought the boy. "Poor Sam.Poor----"

  Suddenly he felt his body leave the sloping rock and shoot into space.Then all at once everything became a blank.

  Dan landed heavily and lay still, but in a few minutes he began tostruggle with himself, fighting off an almost irresistible inclinationto lie back and go to sleep again. A few minutes of this and he sat up.

  "Oh, Sam! Hello, Sam!" he shouted.

  "Hello yourself," answered a voice so close to Dan that he could notrepress a start.

  "Where are you?" cried Dan eagerly.

  "That's what I've been trying to find out myself," answered thered-headed boy.

  "Are you injured?"

  "Injured? Not I. I'm going to strike a match. That's about the onlything about me that hasn't been struck sixteen times to the inch since Istarted in to shoot th
e chutes."

  Lighting the match, he uttered an exclamation of delight. On one side ofthe place was a heap of rubbish. They touched a match to it, and abright blaze rewarded their efforts.

  "How did you happen to fall over, Sam?" Dan questioned.

  "Just as you did, I guess. I was pushed."

  "You know I told you some one was dogging our footsteps earlier in theafternoon."

  For a moment Davis sat lost in thought.

  "Let us push on, Sam," he finally said. "We may find our way out, andour mates can find us in one place as well as in another, if they findus at all."

  Dan took one of the glowing sticks from the fire to light the way, andstarted out.

  "We'd better follow along on this level. We shall never get back the waywe came."

  "All right; I'm ready."

  "Sam, I think we're going down instead of up," said Dan after a fewminutes.

  "What's the odds? We might as well bury ourselves deep while we areabout it."

  Both lads laughed at the red-haired boy's grim joke, neither onethinking of whining over their dangerous situation.