“Oh, well,” returned Phalos, evading a reply. “I am not going to worry about what may happen. Let us talk of something pleasanter,” and he launched into a description of the Temple of Philae that he had been discussing with the professor the night before.
They were now in the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean, almost every foot of whose coast and islands was rich in historic associations of the “glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome.”
Under other circumstances, Don would have found an endless fascination in this storied sea and its surroundings, but now his mind was so taken up with thoughts of his parents that he could pay little attention to anything else. All that he wanted was Egypt, the Egypt where he would find his mother, the Egypt where he hoped to find his father. This filled his whole horizon. Nothing else mattered. When, oh, when would Egypt loom up on the horizon?
And his heart gave such a leap that it almost seemed as though it would leave his body when one morning a faint blur in the distance, rapidly growing larger, revealed itself as the port of Alexandria, where he would first step on Egyptian soil.
CHAPTER VII
On the Trail
Only hours now separated Don from his mother, provided that she was still in Alexandria. But he had been thwarted so many times in the search for his dear ones, the cup of happy expectation had been so often dashed to the ground just as he was lifting it to his lips, that he scarcely dared to hope that this time his longing would be realized.
What might have happened since he had embarked at New York? Perhaps she was ill. Possibly she had been called away from the city by some clew as to the whereabouts of her husband. As to the possibility that he might find both of his parents reunited—Don scarcely dared hope for that.
He packed up all his belongings so that everything would be in readiness, and then paced the deck in a fever of impatience.
The steamer seemed to be only creeping along. Yet it was plowing through the water at a rapid speed that only slowed down when they neared the older of the two harbors of the famous Mediterranean city.
Captain Sturdy and Professor Bruce were almost as agitated as Don himself, though they managed to maintain more of a curb on their emotions. Teddy, too, was wrought up because of his keen sympathy with his friend.