“Will taking the papyrus make that harder?”
“I doubt that. Sparky will always be with the ship. It is true that somehow the enemy agents here have learned of the papyrus, and wanting it for, God knows what reason, have made a play for it. But will they carry this on even in India and China? I doubt that. When you hop off from here, you will be headed for quite another world.”
“Another world,” she repeated the words softly. “That sounds strange and, and rather frightening. But, unless you seriously object, the papyrus goes with Sparky and me to that other world.”
“Then that’s settled,” he agreed.
And now, here they were at the airport.
“Well! For once!” Mary exclaimed as they came up to the plane. “Here’s Sparky. And he’s not working on the engines. What’s the matter, Sparky? Are you sick?”
“No—” he drawled. “Couldn’t think of a thing that needed doing, so I’ve just been reading a book about Persia. Quite a place I’d say.”
“We’ll watch the ship while you look the city over,” the Colonel volunteered.
“Oh, no, thanks all the same.” Sparky’s sun-bronzed face crinkled into a smile. “I’m turning in—sleep on the job, you know—in a few minutes. We’ll take off at dawn. You’ll be here, Mary?”
“Yep. Johnny-on-the-spot. And, Sparky, since you’re guarding the ship, here’s one more little thing you can keep an eye on. Put it in our hiding-place.”