CHAPTER VIII.AMATEUR MAGIC.
Frank dismounted and calmly advanced to meet the old Arab, having given his rifle to Ephraim.
“What do you desire of us, sir?” asked Frank, as they came near together.
The old man glowered at the boy, and then asked, in rather poor English:
“Is there no man with you? Ain-el-Khair has no time to waste with boys.”
Frank flushed a bit, drawing himself up proudly, as he returned:
“Though I am a boy, I am the leader of this party. If you have any business with us, you will do it with me.”
“By the beard of the Prophet, you speak boldly for a youth! But you do not know me, else you would grovel in the dust at my feet.”
“I am not in the habit of groveling in the dust for any one,” said the boy, proudly. “I scarcely think I would begin with you.”
The scowl on Ain-el-Khair’s face deepened.
“I say you do not know me,” he repeated.
“Ah, but I know you well,” declared Frank. “You are a robber and a great rascal. You hate your enemies, and you slay them with delight. Your hands are stained with blood, but your conscience does not trouble you.”
“Dog of a Christian!” roared the old sheik, quivering with passion. “Do you dare speak thus to me?”
“Why should I fear? You cannot harm me!”
This statement was sufficient to cause Ain-el-Khair’s face to change from an expression of fury to one of derision and amusement.
“Fool!” he sneered. “It must be that you have lost your senses. I have more than half a hundred men behind me, and they would wipe three Christians off the face of the earth in a moment.”
“If you had a thousand men, you could not harm me. I am protected by a power you know nothing of.”
The old sheik knew not what to make of the boy, and so he said:
“I will not pass words with you. My followers have arrived, and we must move on. When you have paid tribute, we will leave you.”
“We shall not pay tribute to you.”
“What? Knave, do you dare refuse? Then I will slay you with my own hand!”
Ain-el-Khair drew a long-barreled pistol, which he pointed at the boy; but Frank did not seem at all frightened.
The caravan of camels had halted, and the Arabs were gathered in a group at a little distance, watching what was passing between the old sheik and the boy. Much nearer were the professor and Ephraim, who had also dismounted, their horses standing close at hand.
“I tell you it is not possible for you to harm me, Ain-el-Khair,” Frank again declared. “If you think you can, take aim and shoot. I dare you to do so.”
The old robber was not one to be dared in such a manner. He lifted the long-barreled pistol, and, without hesitation, fired at the boy.
When the pistol spoke Frank pretended to take the bullet from his teeth. He stood erect and unharmed, holding a round ball of lead between thumb and finger, smiling at the astounded Arab.
Ain-el-Khair staggered, his eyes bulging from his head.
“Allah save me!” he gasped. “He is not harmed!”
“Not in the least,” said the lad, easily. “You might fire a hundred bullets at me, and not one of them would do any harm.”
“You must be a sorcerer.”
“I am the greatest sorcerer alive. I cannot be slain, but I have power to slay by touch.”
That was too much for the sheik to believe, and he plainly expressed his unbelief.
Immediately Frank stepped forward and grasped both of Ain-el-Khair’s hands. A yell of fear and pain came from the lips of the old Arab, who began to squirm and dance in a most amazing manner, trying to tear his hands away. After a moment of this, Frank released him, stepping back.
The robber chief stared at the boy, with fear showing plainly in his bulging eyes. This Christian was truly a great sorcerer.
“Are you satisfied?” demanded Frank; “or would you see more?”
Ain-el-Khair did not speak.
“Look!” cried the boy. “Behold my protectors. Had I willed it thus a hundred of them would have planted their poison fangs in your flesh when I touched your hands.”
Out of the boy’s sleeves, his pockets, and various parts of his clothing hissing serpents writhed and twisted. They twined along his arms, twisted about his legs and his neck, popped into view, and vanished. All the while he was moving his hands up and down and around, seeming to pick them off his body and cast them into the air, where they instantly vanished. Of a sudden he slapped his hands, and every serpent disappeared.
“Are you satisfied?” Frank again demanded.
“I am satisfied,” confessed the sheik. “You are a great sorcerer. What wouldst thou have me do?”
A sudden thought flashed through the boy’s brain.
“Take me to Ben Ahmet,” he answered. “It is he whom I seek.”
“Ben Ahmet!” cried Ain-el-Khair. “A thousand curses on him! He has led the sultan to place a price on my head. I have heard that he is in Tangier, and that is why I am here. I hope to meet him face to face when he attempts to return to Fez.”
“He is already on his way. He left Tangier this morning, and, with his fighting men, he is somewhere on the desert. We have followed to overtake him. We have little money with us, but if you can aid us against Ben Ahmet, I will promise you a goodly sum. What is your answer?”
“We will sit down together and talk it over. Perhaps it can be done.”
So they sat upon the ground, Ain-el-Khair taking care to keep at a distance from the boy whom he now feared and respected.
Frank had played a desperate game, and it looked as if he had won. If Ain-el-Khair had fired at the boy’s head the game would have ended suddenly in a tragedy, but the old sheik discharged the pistol at Frank’s breast, and, although the bullet pierced the outer clothing, no harm was done.
From the traveling magician of whom he had purchased the cabinet the boy had obtained a bullet-proof shirt. This he had donned before accompanying Azza in response to the appeal supposed to come from Igela, which may account, in a measure, for his unusual recklessness.
The small electric battery which came with the magician’s cabinet was very powerful, and was supplied with some fine wires that ran down Frank’s sleeves to his hands. Before going out to meet the robber sheik Frank had taken care to see that the battery was in working order, and he had given the old rascal a severe shock when he grasped his hand.
The serpent trick was one of the illusions he had learned from the magician, and it had proved very valuable in working on the superstitious fears of Ain-el-Khair. Even after they had seated themselves face to face upon the ground, the sheik was constantly watching for the swaying head of a snake to appear somewhere about the boy’s person. The old robber was sure a hundred serpents must be concealed in Frank’s clothes.
The astonishment of Professor Scotch can be much better imagined than described. To him it had seemed that Frank was crazy when he advanced to meet the old chief, and what followed that meeting filled him with unspeakable amazement. He could not understand why Frank did not fall when the sheik fired point-blank at him, nor could he imagine why Ain-el-Khair danced and yelled when Frank grasped his hands.
By the time the serpents began to appear and disappear about the boy’s person the professor realized that Frank was attempting to overawe the Arab by a display of legerdemain.
“It is folly,” muttered the professor. “We shall be murdered just the same.”
“Wal, I dunno abaout that,” drawled Ephraim Gallup. “By gum! I kainder cal’late Frank knows what he’s doin’ of.”
The boy from Vermont was beginning to believe Frank could accomplish almost anything he undertook, no matter how difficult it might be.
For nearly half an hour the boy and the old sheik sat face to face on the ground, talking earnestly. The robber chief was seen to make excited gestures, as if much aroused by something Frank had told him.
The sheik’s followers witnessed this interview with unbounded astonishment. They could not understand what it meant.
Finally the old sheik and the boy arose, and Ain-el-Khair made a gesture that caused his fighting men to leap upon their horses and come tearing down at the two about whom they gathered, paying not the slightest attention to the professor and Ephraim.
The chief made a brief speech in Arabic, and his words were greeted with loud yells from his followers.
Then the band parted, and Frank walked back to his anxious friends.
“For Heaven’s sake! what does all this mean?” fluttered the agitated professor. “Explain it at once.”
“It means that I have made a compact with Ain-el-Khair,” declared Frank, smiling triumphantly. “He hates Ben Ahmet and Ali Mustaf most heartily, and he is looking for them now.”
“What kind of a compact have you made?”
“I have agreed to give him a garment that will make him bullet-proof if he will aid us in rescuing Igela from Ben Ahmet. He says he will do so, and will guard us to within a short distance of the wall of Tangier.”
“But how can you give him a garment that will make him bullet-proof?”
“By giving him the shirt I have on. You must stand between me and the Arabs while I remove it. Bring two of the horses on the same side.”
This was done, and Frank hastily and deftly removed the shirt, while Ain-el-Khair supposed the young sorcerer was manufacturing the garment by some mysterious process.
“I hope he will be able to get it on,” said the boy anxiously.
A great shout went up from the Arabs as Frank advanced toward them, with the garment in his hand. The sheik met the boy and received the shirt, examining it curiously. He asked many questions about it, and Frank assured him that no bullet could pierce it.
Then Ain-el-Khair made one of his followers don the shirt, after which the fellow was forced to stand up while the old sheik fired a shot at him at a distance not more than ten feet.
The wearer of the shirt staggered a bit, but remained unharmed by the bullet.
When Ain-el-Khair saw this he turned to Frank and made a most profound salaam, saying:
“You have kept your word, Christian sorcerer, and now you shall see that Ain-el-Khair can keep his.”
Then he lost no time in donning the shirt, which, fortunately, was large enough, although it was a “tight fit.”
The caravan of camels had been captured by the sheik, and he was holding them for tribute; but he quickly decided not to bother with them longer, but to ride at once with horses in search of Ben Ahmet.
In a short time the desert robbers were on the move, and Frank rode at the side of Ain-el-Khair, with Ephraim and the professor close behind.
It was a queer adventure, and Frank was inclined to wonder if he would not awaken and discover that it was a dream.
Night came on the desert, and the caravan had not been sighted. Still Ain-el-Khair pressed on, and he was finally rewarded by seeing the gleam of a camp-fire.
Toward the light they rode. When they had come near enough for him to tell, the old sheik declared a caravan had halted there for the night.
“We will attack it,” he said, “and I pray Allah we may find my enemy there.”
Straight toward the caravan they rode, and like a whirlwind the desert robbers dashed down upon it. The fighting men of the caravan fired a few shots, but, discovering they were greatly outnumbered, quickly ceased, throwing down their muskets and crying to be spared.
Ain-el-Khair looked for Ben Ahmet—and found him! The old sheik had joined that caravan, and Ali Mustaf was at his side. They stood before one of the small tents.
“Praise Allah,” cried the robber sheik, exultantly, speaking in Arabic. “I have found you, Ben Ahmet! You are the one who caused the Sultan to put a price on my head, but you shall not live to see me destroyed. I have come to kill you.”
“But I will kill you first!” shouted the sheik, as he lifted a pistol and fired straight at the breast of the robber chief.
Ain-el-Khair felt the bullet strike against his wonderful shirt, but he was not harmed by it, and, a moment later, he shot Ben Ahmet through the head.
Seeing this, Ali Mustaf uttered a yell of terror and fled in the darkness.
In a moment Frank leaped from his horse and tore open the front of the tent.
“Igela!” he called; “are you here?”
With a cry of joy she sprang into his arms!