But when an hour passed and the missing boy and girl failed to return to the hotel Buckhart began to share the alarm of the professor and Budthorne.
“If anything happens to that boy I’ll never forgive myself!” said the old pedagogue.
“We must look for them,” said Dunbar. “You know what took place at the railway station. What if some of Hafsa Pasha’s tools found Dick and Nadia alone and unprotected?”
Suddenly Brad Buckhart reassumed his Western manners.
“Whoop!” he cried. “Let’s amble forth on the warpath! Let’s take to the trail and go out for scalps! I’m ready, and you know I can scrap some, if I don’t shine resplendent at a soirée. I’m in right good humor for a scrimmage.”
Together they left the hotel and started to return to the bazaar; but they had not proceeded far when they were stopped by the appearance of an open carriage, in which were Dick and Ras al Had.
Dick called to them, and the carriage stopped. Young Merriwell sprang down.
Budthorne, pale and shaking with apprehension, rushed forward and clutched him, demanding to know what had become of Nadia.
Dick told the whole story in as few words as possible.
As he listened Brad Buckhart grew ashen. He realized that Dick and Nadia had become separated from the professor and Budthorne through their efforts to follow and overtake him. By running away in such a childish manner he had led them into all that trouble, the end of which had been the disappearance of the girl.