“Well, I don’t know about that. I hear the men smoke until you may cut the atmosphere into chunks with a knife. The theatre is a rickety old shanty, and none too clean. We might leave Nadia here in the hotel.”
“Don’t do that!” she entreated. “Don’t leave me alone in this city. I’m afraid to be left alone, after what has happened.”
“Hum! ha!” coughed Professor Gunn. “I think we will omit the theatre. Evidently it is a low resort. I decline to permit the boys to visit it.”
And, although they chaffed him about it, the old man was rigid in his decision, which finally settled it, and they did not attend the theatre in Damascus.
The following morning, however, they prepared to start out to look the city over. When they were ready to leave the hotel it was found that Buckhart had vanished.
On inquiry they learned that he had set out by himself, leaving word for them not to bother about him.
Nadia pouted and looked greatly disappointed.
“What is the matter with him?” she asked. “I think he’s just as mean as can be! What makes him act so queer?”
She pinned Dick down and put the question to him, not a little to his dismay. He could not tell the truth, and he would not lie.
“I’ll have to let him explain his own actions,” he said, seeking to find a loophole of escape.