But richer far to Don was his finding of his father, a fact that he cabled at the first possible moment to the wife and daughter waiting in America. The delirious joy that the news brought into the Hillville home was beyond expression. Answering cables came, brimming with happiness and affection, and urging the voyagers to hasten home.
Teddy, too, had got in instant communication with his father, and the answer received removed all apprehension he might have had as to his escapade.
“Guess that spanking has gone into the discard,” he grinned, as he read his message. “Dad seems to think that his wandering boy is the goods, after all.”
As Don reviewed the events of those stirring weeks, he felt that he never again would meet with such exciting adventures. But that he was mistaken will be seen in the next book of this series, entitled: “Don Sturdy Across the North Pole; or, Cast Away in the Land of Ice.”
Their parting with Phalos was a cause of keen regret to all of them, for they had learned to regard the old Egyptian with the deepest affection. The feeling was reciprocated, and he bade them farewell with the greatest reluctance, after making them promise that they would make his villa their home on any future visit to Egypt.
The voyage home was a swift and prosperous one, and the reception they had when they reached Hillville was one never to be forgotten. It was a red letter day in that household when Mr. Sturdy, almost wholly recovered, gathered his wife and daughter in his arms. Happiness had proved a wonderful tonic, and Mrs. Sturdy was herself again while the roses were once more blooming in Ruth’s cheeks.
A skillful surgeon found a way to cure Mr. Sturdy utterly by removing a splinter of skull that had been pressing on the brain, and then indeed the Sturdy home became an earthly paradise.
Don’s exploits made him a hero with the other members of the household, Dan and Mrs. Roscoe and Jennie, whose delight at the return of the adventurers was only less keen than that of Ruth and Mrs. Sturdy. Jennie, especially, threatened to create a scarcity in the gum market, as she vigorously worked her jaws while listening with delicious shivers to the story of his wanderings in the tomb of the monarch, whom she persisted in calling “Ras-Paresis.”
Don shone with an added luster also in the eyes of Fred and Emily Turner. But he laughingly evaded the pedestal on which they sought to place him.
“It’s dad who deserves all the credit,” he said. “I only fell into the Tombs of Gold. It was dad who led us out.”