CALLING ON THE MUMMIES
For a full mile they made the red-headed boy run. Then, at Dan's command, a camel was made to kneel, and the perspiring coxswain was permitted to climb the animal's hump.
"That—that was a mean trick," growled Sam. "I'll even up with you for that, Dan Davis!"
Dan laughed happily.
"You needed the exercise. It will put you in good shape for climbing the Pyramids."
A few minutes more of riding brought them to the feet of these awe-inspiring monuments, and with the aid of their guides the jackies scrambled up the sides of the Great Pyramid.
"We must see the tombs on the inside of the Pyramid, fellows," cried Dan after they had descended by skips and jumps the long steps of the Pyramid.
"Yes," cried Sam. "I promised to give the regards of the stay-at-homes to 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 any one 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 of which 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 Hickey solemnly.
The others began asking questions, and Dan, walking to the other side of the chamber, began examining the inscriptions on the walls. He was standing near a corridor when suddenly he became conscious of a shadow coming between himself and the light. He started, then peered into the long corridor.
"What are you looking for?" demanded Sam, who had come up behind Dan at that moment.
"I think there is some one out there," he replied. "I saw shadows again."
"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 playing tricks on us. What do you say to our turning the tables on them? We'll hide in the corridor, and give them a scare when they creep up to see where we are."
Davis and Hickey crept along on their hands and knees, chuckling softly over 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, but in 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 of this sort."
Keeping close together, the boys began crawling rapidly. All at once Dan stopped.
"We surely should have reached the King's Chamber before this," he declared.
"Maybe we have gone on past it?"
"I think not. We should have recognized the place had we passed through it."
"Then there's only one thing to do—whoop her up until the mummies turn over."
"I guess you are right."
Dan uttered a loud hello. There was no answer. Sam shouted, with no better result.
"Sam, we've been left alone in the dark this time—we're lost in the Great Pyramid."
Meanwhile the other bluejackets had finished their tour and had emerged into the bright sunlight.
While taking up a collection to settle with the guide, Spunk McGraw, a friend 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 his face.
"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 to the 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 mate found 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 the place where we change cars by way of the camels."
"They may have been held up on that camel ride, sir," spoke up one of the men, "but they may be on the train following. You can't keep Davis and Hickey in one place against their will for very long."
A ripple of laughter ran along the line at this, but when the next train came wheezing in with no Battleship Boys, the mate looked grave.
"It is my opinion that those men are lost in the Pyramid," he announced with 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 the midnight train."
Within half an hour he had procured an automobile and two Pyramid guides, and with his detail of jackies had departed for the Pyramids.
Back in the Pyramid the Battleship Boys were still lost and in utter darkness.
"What's the matter with our following the passageway back to the King's Chamber?" 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 my hand. We do not want to get separated."
The lads made their way along through corridor after corridor. They could 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 ourselves with," said Dan Davis.
"We have our knives," answered Sam.
"Yes; we'll use them if we meet any four-footed enemies. Strike another match, please."
Sam did so at once. Instantly something happened. As the match flared up, 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 instant Dan Davis was served in a similar manner. Instead of jumping, however, he whirled with the intention of grappling with his assailant, whoever he might be.
Another push sent him reeling backward. He grasped wildly for something to 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 to struggle with himself, fighting off an almost irresistible inclination to 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 not repress a start.
"Where are you?" cried Dan eagerly.
"That's what I've been trying to find out myself," answered the red-headed boy.
"Are you injured?"
"Injured? Not I. I'm going to strike a match. That's about the only thing about me that hasn't been struck sixteen times to the inch since I started in to shoot the chutes."
Lighting the match, he uttered an exclamation of delight. On one side of the place was a heap of rubbish. They touched a match to it, and a bright 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 the afternoon."
For a moment Davis sat lost in thought.
"Let us push on, Sam," he finally said. "We may find our way out, and our mates can find us in one place as well as in another, if they find us at all."
Dan took one of the glowing sticks from the fire to light the way, and started out.
"We'd better follow along on this level. We shall never get back the way we came."
"All right; I'm ready."
"Sam, I think we're going down instead of up," said Dan after a few minutes.
"What's the odds? We might as well bury ourselves deep while we are about it."
Both lads laughed at the red-haired boy's grim joke, neither one thinking of whining over their dangerous situation.