by John Blaine
He felt pressure as ropes bound him tight,then he was lifted and placed on something hard, stomach down, like a sack of meal on a chair. The chair lifted and rocked, and he heard loud groans, as though of a soul in mortal pain.
He was on one of the camels, and the beast was protesting!
Swaying motion began, and he knew his ungainly steed was underway.
For a moment he seemed to see himself from a distance, wrapped like Cleopatra in a rug, tossed on a camel like a bag of old clothes, and carted unceremoniously away by a band of Arabs. The picture was so ridiculous that he had to grin, in spite of the discomfort and the foul air that reached him through the dirty burnoose.
Then realization hit him. Youssef was in charge, and Youssef was a tough professional thief who intended to get the cat. Where was the thief taking him?
Sudden fear ran through his thoughts.
The camel swayed and jogged along for what seemed hours to Rick. Now and then he could hear voices, but he made no sense out of the Arabic. The camels complained constantly, and he felt like moaning with them. His stomach hurt from the constant rubbing across the saddle and both legs were asleep from the tight wrapping. His head dangled down, and now and then his nose banged when the camel lurched. He couldn’t remember ever having been so uncomfortable for so long.
It seemed forever before the camel stopped. Rick hung over the saddleunprotestingly .
There was nothing he could do but wait. Finally the camel lurched forward and Rick thought he would be thrown off,then the animal leveled again. The camel had knelt, still complaining.
Hands pulled Rick from the saddle and he felt someone at work on his bonds while the hands held him upright. Suddenly the burnoose was whipped off, and the brilliant sunlight made his eyes water. He squinted against the glare.
An Arab finishedunwrapping him and stood back. He would have fallen except for the hands that still held him from behind. He looked over his shoulder and the big Sudanese grinned at him. He didn’t feel like grinning back.
When his eyes were adjusted to the sun, he looked around. There was desert in all directions, no sign of civilization anywhere. Immediately before him was an ancient stone structure, nearly buried by the sands.
Youssef walked around one of the camels carrying a desert water bag. The thief lifted it, and water poured into his mouth in a thin stream. Rick licked his lips. “I’d like some of that,” he said.
Youssefrecorked the bag. “Doubtless,” he agreed. “Mr. Brant, I size you up as what you Americans term a stubborn case. However, I am prepared to drop this whole affair right now-if you will turn over the cat without further trouble.”
“We gave you a cat,” Rick reminded.
“Yes.But not the right one.”
“How do you know it isn’t the right one?” Rick demanded.
Youssef smiled. “Shall we say that I had a cat expert examine it? Let it go, Mr. Brant.
We both know you still have the one I want.”
“But why do you want it?” Rick asked. He couldn’t help asking, even though this obviously was not the time for friendly banter.
“I want it. That is enough. Will you give it to me?”
“I can’t,” Rick explained. “It must be turned over to Moustafa.” He didn’t say which Moustafa.
The thief sighed. “Then I was right. You are stubborn. Well, stubbornness is like starch.
It does not last. In this case, we will let the desert and thirst take the starch out of you.
After a few days here you will beg me to take the cat. But it is all so foolish, and so unnecessary! Why not be reasonable?”
Rick looked around at the endless, shimmering dunes of theSahara , and he wanted desperately to be reasonable. He couldn’t. “Sorry,” he said.
“Very well.On your headbe it.” Youssef called in Arabic and two men lifted down a huge bundle from one of the camels. Theyunwrapped it, and Hassan swayed and blinked in the glaring sun.
Hands pulled Rick from the saddle
“You shall have company,” Youssef stated. He gestured at the surrounding wastes. “We leave you to do what you wish. You might even try to walk to civilization. I will leave no guard. However, I do not recommend it, because when I return it might not be possible to find you in time if you should leave here. When I come back I will have writing materials and you will send a note to your friend Scott, telling him to give me the cat. When I have the cat, I will see that your friends are told how to find you.”
The thief swung to a kneeling camel, and his men followed suit. A command and the camels rose, mouthing their complaints. Youssef waved, and the caravan raced away with long, smooth strides across the desert.
Rick turned to Hassan. “Are you all right?” he asked anxiously.
The dragoman put a hand to his head. “Hurts like fire, but I okay.You?”
“I’m fine.”
“What we do now?”
Rick saw the camels disappear behind a dune, then emerge again. It was a pretty, romantic picture, but one he couldn’t appreciate.
“We wait,” he told Hassan. “We wait, and I guess we hope. There’s nothing else we can do.”
CHAPTER XV
The Cat Comes Back
The hands of the control-room clock crept up to five. Scotty asked an Egyptian technician to watch the tapes for amoment, then went to the telephone and called the hotel.
It wasn’t like Rick to be late. Scotty thought his pal might have decided to take a nap and had failed to wake up in time, but he had little 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 since morning.
Scotty debated calling the museum, and decided against it. He went to Parnell Winston, who was supervising the transfer of information from the Sanborn tracings to graph paper.
“Rick hasn’t shown,” Scotty said bluntly. “I’m worried. He’s never late.”
Winston glanced up. “Could Hassan’s car have broken down?”
“Could be, but I don’t think so. Rick could have gotten a taxi anywhere on the route.
Besides, he was going to the museum to get the Egyptian cat. Something might have happened.”
The scientist knew the two boys from long association, and they had kept him informed of their various adventures. In spite of his preoccupation with the project he had been interestedIn their cat mystery and had been 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 of the 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 him to the museum as soon as they arrived inCairo . 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. It was a new statue, the guard captain said, probably left by some visitor who had disobeyed the sign about taking packages into the museum.
So Rick had carried out the plan and had rescued the Egyptian cat. Now the museum had the kitten.
Scotty had the car take him to the hotel. There was no sign of either Rick or Hassan, and no one had seen either of them. Scotty questioned the clerk, the doorman, the hall porter, the room maid, and the dragomen who waited for business in the narrow street between theSemiramis and theShepheard’s hotels.
Finally, he found a dragoman who knew nothing of their whereabouts, but added, “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 usual place. 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 a cook was looking out. Scotty found the door and hurried into the hotel. He worked his way through rooms and corridors until he found the kitchen. He saw that the cook was a salad maker who apparently worked at a bench right next to the window, but to his questions the man shook his head. He spoke no English.
Additional searching produced the chief cook,whose English was good. He relayed Scotty’s questions and the cook’s answers.
“He say car come while he cleaning up after lunch-time. Hesee stranger driving. So he lean out and ask whereis Hassan . Stranger say he is the cousin of Hassan and Hassan lend him car. That is all. Cousinlock up car and go away.”
It was enough. But Scotty’s elation over finding a clue was tempered by the realization that a stranger driving Hassan’s car could mean that Rick and the dragoman were in real danger. He did not know whether or not Hassan had any cousins, but he was certain the guide would not have loaned the car while on a job.
Scotty ran into the alley and tried all the doors. If Rick had managed to leave a note or any clue in the car, Scotty wanted it. Locked doors weren’t going to stop him!
He searched the alley until he found a piece of stiff wire. He bent one end into a hook.
Then, with his jackknife, he pried one of the no-draft windows open just far enough to slip the wire in. He wedged the window with a piece of wood and began fishing.
It took long, patient minutes to hook a door handle, then more time to maneuver the wire into position. By the time he was ready for the last step, the cooks and some of the dragomen were watching. He paid no attention. Holding his breath, he exerted pressure on the wire. The inner handle turned, the latch clicked. The door was unlocked.
Scotty started in the front seat and went over the car methodically. He found nothing.
Finally, only the cushions were left. He pulled the front one 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 the cushion where Rick
had stuffed it.
Scotty examined it, his heart racing. He hurriedly set things to rights in 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 cat except for one reason: to protect it. That meant Rick had expected to be searched.
Scotty followed the thought forward, logically. Rick had hidden the cat,then he and Hassan had been taken from the car. A “cousin” had brought it back to the hotel. Why?
Scotty didn’t know the answer to that, unless Rick and Hassan had been taken in some location where an abandoned car would have attracted attention. That wouldn’t be in the city, because who 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’s guess. The desert was on both sides of the river, both north and south ofCairo . He could assume that the two had headed for the project, or that they had gone north for some reason he couldn’t imagine.
He dropped the line of thought; it was getting nowhere. One thing was clear: whoever had taken Rick and Hassan hadn’t suspected that Rick actually had the cat with him.
The cat had to be the reason. Someone who wanted it had decided on direct action.
Scotty opened the door of the room he shared with Rick and looked about him
unhappily, not really seeing anything. He knew Rick’s captors would not have an easy time making his pal talk. And even when Rick did open up, he would spin some kind of yarn that would throw them off the trail. Scotty thought that Rick would not be in any great danger until he disclosed the cat’s whereabouts. But he didn’t like the idea 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 Third Brother knew, the cat was to be delivered to him at the hotel that night. On the other hand,Youssef’s men had searched them in front of the museum, and later Rick had handed Youssef a kitten.
The thief must have found out that the kitten was a fake.
Scotty picked up the room telephone and called the project. In a moment he 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 cat in the car, behind the rear cushion. He wouldn’t do that unless he knew he was going to be searched. My guess is that Youssef snatched them. I think it’s time we got the police in on this!”
CHAPTER XVI
The Howling Jackals
Tourists travel thousands of miles to see the full moon rise over theSaharaDesert . It is a sight of lonely, majestic grandeur. The rolling contours of sand and rock assume weird, lovely patterns, and even the desert wind is hushed. It is at such times, men say, that the spirits of the ancient Egyptian gods,Amon -Re,Horus ,Thoth ,Isis ,Osiris ,Bubaste , and the others again walk on earth.
Rick Brant could appreciate the scene, but he was in no mood for it. He clutched his coat around him more tightly to keep out the penetrating desert chill. From behind a nearby dune he heard the rising, yapping howl of a jackal, one of earth’s loneliest sounds.
Anubis, Egyptian god of death, had the head of a jackal, he recalled. He tried to wet his lips. He was terribly thirsty.
Hassan had been stretched out on the sand. He rose to a sitting position and gestured toward the dune that shielded the jackal from sight.“He noisy.”
Rick nodded. “Do jackals always bark at night?”
“Always.It is their kismet.”
Their fate, Rick thought.Born to bark at the empty desert. He wondered if the little doglike animals enjoyed it. “Do they always bark at nothing?”
“No. Sometimes they bark at people.Like now. Hebark at us.”
Rick grinned feebly. “He doesn’t like us using his desert. Well, I’d be happy to give it back to him.”
The dragoman nodded.“Also. You know, when our people want to say time go by ...
how you say? . . .life goes on and no man can stop time or make much change in things, they speak of the jackal.”
Rick looked at the guide with interest. He had been glad all through the long hours of Hassan’s presence. The Sudanese had turned out to be an entertaining and thought-
provoking companion. “Is it a saying of some kind?” he asked.
Hassan nodded. “The little jackal barks-but the caravan passes.”
Rick repeated the expression thoughtfully. It said a great deal. “I’ll remember that, Hassan.”
There was something he had wanted to ask. “May I ask a personal question?”
The guide spread his hands expressively. “You hired a dragoman, but he has become your friend. Ask what you will.”
“Thank you, Hassan. Scotty and I think of you as a friend, too. I wanted to ask about your English. You’ve been speaking very good English to me all day, but until we were captured, you spoke sort of broken English.”
Hassan chuckled softly. “It is part of show I put on. My clients talk too simple English to me most of the time. They don’t expect me to know good English. So I do not speak as well as I can. Now, with you and Scotty, it is different. My broken English is habit, so I continue to speak it until today. But I knew it would be different with you when we had coffee together, and when we laughed together. That was when I knew I could leave my show clothes at home and dress in a suit.”
Rick laughed with him. “So that’s why you wore fancy stuff only that first day. But, Hassan, if you can’t read or write, how did you learn such good English?”
“I am like a parrot,” Hassan replied. “I hear, and I repeat. For four years I was houseboy to an American family, from USIS, what you call the United States Information Service.”
“They taught you English?” Rick prompted.
“I knew some, but we helped each other. Iteache
d them Arab talk, and they correct me when I speak American.”
Hassan launched into a recital of his years with the Americans, who had been
transferred toIndia , but still wrote to him now and then. Rick listened with only part of his mind. For the most, his thoughts went back over ground he had covered before, since Youssef had dumped the two of them next to an ancient crypt.
The big question was, of course, what would happen to them?
As though in answer, the little jackal appeared silhouetted on top of the dune.He lifted his head to the full moon, and his voice rose in a prolonged, yapping howl. Then, as suddenly, he was gone again.
Rick gave an involuntary shiver. By the time Youssef returned, he would be in bad shape from thirst. He wondered how long he could hold out, and in the same instant wondered why he should. There was some real value attached to the cat. It was not manufacturing rights or sales, and it was not revenge. He was sure of that.
Youssef had said that he had no sentimental attachment to the cat. He had also said he disliked unnecessary violence. Rick wondered what the thief considered “unnecessary.”
What else could he recall of Youssefs talk? He had said that the cat was not important, that it had elements of value to some people, and that he never lied. If one took his words at face value and believed him, then the cat itself was not important. What did that leave? Rick could see only one thing: that it was important only because it contained something. Youssefs words simply reinforced the conclusion he and Scotty already had reached.
“Elements of value to a few people,” Youssef had said. That might mean only a few people knew what the cat contained. If you didn’t know, it was only a plastic cat. If you did know what it contained . . . well, Youssef knew, and he wanted the cat badly enough to risk a kidnaping.
Rick wondered where the cat was now. He had no idea of what had happened to