Jack Hildreth on the Nile | Page 6

comes?"
"Nevertheless he comes," assented Murad Nassyr, with a shudder. "He
comes through bolted doors, and wanders before our eyes up and down
the lighted rooms; oh, it is horrible!"
"And where does Selim sleep, the brave steward, who declares he is the
hero of his tribe and the world?"

"Behind the outside door, where his bed is made, and he has seen the
ghost often."
"Well, it grows dark even now. If you will permit me, I will visit my
small charges, and then prepare for the vigil," I 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