“It is significant to me,” remarked Phalos, “that the locality the man indicated is very close to that where I believe the Tombs of Gold to be situated.”
“Don’t you think the time has come to take us fully into your secret?” asked the captain. “Suppose anything happened to you! You might be sunstruck, become disabled in some way. In that case, our expedition will have come to nothing.”
“You are right,” agreed Zeta Phalos. “You shall know now all that I know myself,” and during the midday rest period he went into a careful calculation of facts and figures with the captain and the professor, while Don and Teddy listened with the greatest interest and attention.
The boys did not grasp all the calculation, but one outstanding thing that impressed them was that the place would be indicated by a rock shaped something like a pyramid, balanced upon another rock, flat in shape but larger than the first.
They journeyed hard and fast that afternoon and till well into the evening in the direction indicated by the leader of the caravan. And when they camped for the night, they were confident that, barring accidents, they would be within striking distance of their goal before the following night closed in on them.
The next day was the hottest that they had yet encountered. The sun beat down on them with terrific fury. They were tortured with sunburn and by innumerable swarms of sand-flies, the plague of Egypt.
They allowed themselves only a short rest period and pushed on.
Before long they came to a place where a rocky wilderness stretched away to the right of the road they were traversing. Here, after a consultation of his map and a discussion with Don’s uncles, Zeta Phalos determined to leave the camels in the care of Ismillah and Abdul and push into the wilderness on foot. The camels would have been of little use to them on those rocky slopes, and in addition Phalos was quite as well satisfied to dispense with the servants for the last stage of the trip. He believed them trustworthy, but preferred to have only the Americans with him if his goal were actually discovered.
A cave that offered a secure hiding place for the servants and the camels was found, and it was not long before the searchers had occasion to be thankful that they had taken the precaution.
As they clambered up the slope, amid the huge rocks with which it was strewn, Don’s keen eyes detected a body of riders in the distance coming fast toward them.