CHAPTER XV
The Cat Comes Back
The hands of the control-room clock crept up to five. Scotty asked anEgyptian technician to watch the tapes for a moment, then went to thetelephone and called the hotel.
It wasn't like Rick to be late. Scotty thought his pal might havedecided to take a nap and had failed to wake up in time, but he hadlittle faith in the idea. Rick wasn't a nap taker. More likely,something had happened at the museum.
The hotel desk rang the room without success, and to Scotty's question,the clerk answered that he had not seen Mr. Brant or Hassan sincemorning.
Scotty debated calling the museum, and decided against it. He went toParnell Winston, who was supervising the transfer of information fromthe Sanborn tracings to graph paper.
"Rick hasn't shown," Scotty said bluntly. "I'm worried. He's neverlate."
Winston glanced up. "Could Hassan's car have broken down?"
"Could be, but I don't think so. Rick could have gotten a taxi anywhereon the route. Besides, he was going to the museum to get the Egyptiancat. Something might have happened."
The scientist knew the two boys from long association, and they had kepthim informed of their various adventures. In spite of his preoccupationwith the project he had been interested in their cat mystery and hadbeen keeping an eye on them. Winston hadn't noticed that Rick was late,but he was worried too, now that it was called to his attention.
"Go find him, Scotty. Dr. Kerama's driver can take you. I'll have one ofthe others watch the tapes. But get back as soon as you can."
Scotty planned his search on the way into town. He had the car take himto the museum as soon as they arrived in Cairo. The museum was closed,but questioning of the guard disclosed that Rick had been there, and had"found" an unusual statue wrapped in newspaper and left in an urn. Itwas a new statue, the guard captain said, probably left by some visitorwho had disobeyed the sign about taking packages into the museum.
So Rick had carried out the plan and had rescued the Egyptian cat. Nowthe museum had the kitten.
Scotty had the car take him to the hotel. There was no sign of eitherRick or Hassan, and no one had seen either of them. Scotty questionedthe clerk, the doorman, the hall porter, the room maid, and the dragomenwho waited for business in the narrow street between the Semiramis andthe Shepheard's hotels.
Finally, he found a dragoman who knew nothing of their whereabouts, butadded, "Why you not wait in room? They not far. Hassan's car here."
"Where?" Scotty demanded quickly.
"Out back. In alley."
Scotty ran. The dragoman was right! Hassan's car was parked in the usualplace. He looked around to see who might have been working in the area,someone who might know when the car had arrived.
A window in the hotel kitchen opened into the alley above the car and acook was looking out. Scotty found the door and hurried into the hotel.He worked his way through rooms and corridors until he found thekitchen. He saw that the cook was a salad maker who apparently worked ata bench right next to the window, but to his questions the man shook hishead. He spoke no English.
Additional searching produced the chief cook, whose English was good. Herelayed Scotty's questions and the cook's answers.
"He say car come while he cleaning up after lunchtime. He see strangerdriving. So he lean out and ask where is Hassan. Stranger say he is thecousin of Hassan and Hassan lend him car. That is all. Cousin lock upcar and go away."
It was enough. But Scotty's elation over finding a clue was tempered bythe realization that a stranger driving Hassan's car could mean thatRick and the dragoman were in real danger. He did not know whether ornot Hassan had any cousins, but he was certain the guide would not haveloaned the car while on a job.
Scotty ran into the alley and tried all the doors. If Rick had managedto leave a note or any clue in the car, Scotty wanted it. Locked doorsweren't going to stop him!
He searched the alley until he found a piece of stiff wire. He bent oneend into a hook. Then, with his jackknife, he pried one of the no-draftwindows open just far enough to slip the wire in. He wedged the windowwith a piece of wood and began fishing.
It took long, patient minutes to hook a door handle, then more time tomaneuver the wire into position. By the time he was ready for the laststep, the cooks and some of the dragomen were watching. He paid noattention. Holding his breath, he exerted pressure on the wire. Theinner handle turned, the latch clicked. The door was unlocked.
Scotty started in the front seat and went over the car methodically. Hefound nothing. Finally, only the cushions were left. He pulled the frontone away and examined the debris that seems to collect under car seats.He put the cushion back and went to the rear one.
He lifted the seat out--and disclosed the Egyptian cat, in back of thecushion where Rick had stuffed it.
Scotty examined it, his heart racing. He hurriedly set things to rightsin the car, closed the car door, and hurried into the hotel.
He knew Rick, and he knew his pal wouldn't have parted with the catexcept for one reason: to protect it. That meant Rick had expected to besearched.
Scotty followed the thought forward, logically. Rick had hidden the cat,then he and Hassan had been taken from the car. A "cousin" had broughtit back to the hotel. Why? Scotty didn't know the answer to that, unlessRick and Hassan had been taken in some location where an abandoned carwould have attracted attention. That wouldn't be in the city, becausewho would pay any attention to a car parked and locked at the curb?
But if not in the city, where? Somewhere in the desert was Scotty'sguess. The desert was on both sides of the river, both north and southof Cairo. He could assume that the two had headed for the project, orthat they had gone north for some reason he couldn't imagine.
He dropped the line of thought; it was getting nowhere. One thing wasclear: whoever had taken Rick and Hassan hadn't suspected that Rickactually had the cat with him.
The cat had to be the reason. Someone who wanted it had decided ondirect action. Scotty opened the door of the room he shared with Rickand looked about him unhappily, not really seeing anything. He knewRick's captors would not have an easy time making his pal talk. And evenwhen Rick did open up, he would spin some kind of yarn that would throwthem off the trail. Scotty thought that Rick would not be in any greatdanger until he disclosed the cat's whereabouts. But he didn't like theidea of what Rick would have to go through before then.
The question was who had taken him?
There were two possibilities: Moustafa and Youssef. So far as ThirdBrother knew, the cat was to be delivered to him at the hotel thatnight. On the other hand, Youssef's men had searched them in front ofthe museum, and later Rick had handed Youssef a kitten. The thief musthave found out that the kitten was a fake.
Scotty picked up the room telephone and called the project. In a momenthe had Winston on the line. "Rick's gone," he said tersely. "Hassan,too. The car was brought to the hotel by a stranger. Rick left the catin the car, behind the rear cushion. He wouldn't do that unless he knewhe was going to be searched. My guess is that Youssef snatched them. Ithink it's time we got the police in on this!"
The Egyptian Cat Mystery: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story Page 15