Jack Hildreth on the Nile | Page 6

said.
I found the children comfortably bestowed, and happy in their first good supper and freedom from abuse in the two years since they had been enslaved. I was grateful to the ghost I purposed capturing, for I knew well that Murad Nassyr would never have risked sheltering them from Abd el Barak had he not desired my help even more than he acknowledged. I, too, supped abundantly with my host, who then conducted me to the scene of my next adventure, pressed my hand as he said good night, and left me. I heard the door of his apartment clang behind him, and the bolt drawn; I was alone to await my next visitor, who was supposed to come from another world.
I had provided myself with strong ropes, from one of which I made a lasso such as Sam Hawkins had so well taught me to use on the plains. With these, and my knife and pistol close at hand, I lay down on the couch placed for me, and drew up the blanket so that only my face showed.
I had not long to wait. I heard a rustle by the door leading to Murad Nassyr's apartment, which opened, and the ghost entered. By the light I saw a thin, pointed instrument in his hand, which he inserted in the hole to push back the bolt. I held my lids down, feigning sleep, but watched everything through my lashes. I felt ashamed for Murad Nassyr; this apparition had nothing ghostly about it. The fellow was wrapped in a white burnoose that fell to the ground, the hood drawn over his head, and a white cloth covered his face, in which two holes had been cut for the eyes. This was not a spirit, a ghost, but a man, and remarkably like the figure of Abd el Barak. He came over to my side and stood watching me for a few moments to assure himself I was really sleeping, though how I could be supposed to be I did not understand, for some companion ghosts were in the next room imitating the howling of dogs, and making a hubbub fit to waken the Seven Sleepers. Very softly my ghost bent over me, his right hand crept out of the burnoose, and I saw the flash of a knife blade. I did not spring up, for such a movement would have brought me directly in contact with the knife, but I threw myself at his feet, and tripped him up. The knife flew from his hand, and he fell flat across the couch. The next moment I was over him, choking him with the left hand, while with the right I dealt him a blow back of the ear. He made a feeble effort at resistance and then became unconscious, whereupon I bound his arms and legs fast, and placed a nice, comfortable little gag between his jaws, that in case he regained consciousness he should not call for help. After that I pulled off the cloth covering his face, and saw, as I expected, the cruel countenance of Abd el Barak.
Without stopping to meditate on the fate that had delivered the children's oppressor into my hands while engaged in actions for which he would be punishable by law, I went in pursuit of his comrades. Taking my revolver, I crawled on my hands and knees, close to the dark wall, into the next room. There were two charming fellows here, who, to make themselves like the beasts they were imitating, were going about on all fours. Keeping myself as near the floor as I could, I crept up to them, my garments being too dark for me to be easily distinguished from the rugs. When I was within six or seven paces of the one nearest me, I sprang up and knocked him down with one good blow. He uttered a tremendous shriek, but lay still. The other, warned by this cry, arose. He saw me and started to run away, I after him, toward the basin of a fountain. A stone of the coping of this basin had gotten loose; I did not see it and tripped over it, thus delaying my flight just enough to let the fellow get sufficient start so that when I got into the garden I saw him escaping over the wall. I caught him by the foot and pulled him back. He came with such force that I fell under him; he drew his knife, but I was too quick for him, and made a swift turn, which brought the thrust between my arm and side. Then I gave him a blow on the nose, and tried to hold him by his knife hand. The pain of his cracked nose redoubled his strength; he