CHAPTER IV

How long and how far they ran the children never knew. They ran through the soft sand as if their feet were winged, with but one thought in both their minds, to get as far away from that dreadful village as possible, before the man with the stick turned from his victim, and started in pursuit of them. They were far too frightened by what they had seen to stop to consider that the man could not possibly bear them any ill will, or desire to injure them in any way. Both their hats were soon left behind; several times they fell, but fortunately the sand was soft, and they were up and off again in a moment. At last, hot, breathless, and utterly exhausted, Phyllis sank down in a little heap at the foot of a sand hill, and Reggie, scarcely less exhausted himself, dropped down beside her.

It was some minutes before either of them had recovered sufficient breath to move or speak, and then Reggie was the first to sit up and look around. There was not a human being in sight, and they seemed to be surrounded on every side, as far as the eye could reach, by nothing but vast stretches of desert sand. The last faint tints of daylight were just fading out of the evening sky, and a few stars were beginning to twinkle. Reggie shuddered. Something in the great stillness and solitude all around terrified him even more than the man beating the boy in the village had done.

"Wasn't it--wasn't it awful!" gasped Phyllis, finding her voice at last. "Do you suppose that man would have killed us if we hadn't run away so fast?"

"No, I don't," said Reggie, who felt his courage rapidly rising now that he was at a safe distance from the terrible man with the stick. "I don't believe he would have hurt us a bit. I wish we hadn't run away. We ought to have waited till that lame boy's father came home. He said his father talked English."

"Oh, Reggie, you wouldn't really, it was so dreadful! Do let's hurry and get back to the hotel; it's getting so very late, and Nurse and Ellen will be so frightened."

"But we don't know the way," said Reggie, mournfully. "We're lost this time, sure, and it's almost dark, too."

"Oh, Reggie, what are we going to do?" cried Phyllis, clasping her hands in a sudden realization of the hopelessness of things. "Suppose we should have to stay out here all night."

"Well, we couldn't help it if we did," said Reggie, gloomily digging his toes in the sand. "I guess we won't, though. Daddy's sure to come and look for us as soon as he gets home."

"Do you suppose he's come home yet?" inquired Phyllis, anxiously.

"I don't know, but I guess he will be home soon, anyway. It must be 'most supper time. I'm getting pretty hungry, aren't you?"

"Yes, very, and there isn't anything to eat. Reggie, suppose we should starve."

"Bosh!" said Reggie, with a great show of contempt. "Of course we won't. I heard Daddy say a person could live a whole week without eating anything, and they'll be sure to find us before that."

"A whole week!" gasped Phyllis, her eyes growing round with horror. "Why, if we had to stay here all night I should die, I know I should. Oh, it's dreadful, it's dreadful!" And poor little Phyllis lifted up her voice and wailed.

Reggie felt very much inclined to follow her example, but remembered just in time that he was a boy, and so merely rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes instead. Phyllis continued to wail until her head began to ache, and then the wails subsided into low moans, with occasional pauses for rest. Reggie sat still, without uttering a word. There really didn't seem to be anything to say. He was rather sorry when Phyllis stopped screaming, because it made the silence seem even worse than before. At last Phyllis lifted her head from the pile of sand on which she had laid it in her weariness, and inquired in a choked little voice--

"Were you ever lost before, Reggie?"

"Yes, once," said Reggie, glad of any sound to break the awful stillness. "It was two summers ago at York Harbor. I was only six then, and Ellen took me to the woods to pick raspberries. We took the wrong path coming home, and were dreadfully late for supper. Mother was frightened."

"But you didn't have to stay out all night, did you?"

"Oh, no, we found the right path after a while, and we ate lots of raspberries, so we didn't mind so much about being late. I wish we'd eaten some of the bread that girl gave us."

Phyllis shuddered.

"I don't," she said, decidedly. "It was horrid stuff; it might have made us ill."

"We must have dropped our pieces when we ran away," said Reggie, regretfully. "We've lost our hats, too. Do you suppose Nurse will make an awful row about yours?"

"I'm sure she will," said Phyllis, putting her hand up to her bare head. She had been too much absorbed by other things to notice her loss before. "Don't you think we'd better go back and look for them? Nurse says people always take cold if they go out without their hats at night."

Reggie scrambled to his feet.

"All right," he said promptly; "come along."

But alas! in what direction were they to turn? In vain they strained their eyes through the fast gathering darkness, in search of some landmark that might serve them as a guide. There was nothing but sand, sand, in every direction.

"I guess we'd better stay right here where we are," said Reggie. "We might get more lost than we are if we went any further, and it's getting too dark to see anything."

Phyllis made no objection, but sank down on the ground again, and for the next ten minutes sobbed her poor little frightened heart out in the sand. At last Reggie spoke, breaking a silence which had lasted, it seemed to him, a very long time.

"All the stars in the sky are lit now," he remarked, with a faint hope of arousing Phyllis's interest, and making her talk. "I wonder what God's doing up there now, don't you?"

Phyllis lifted her head, with a start.

"Perhaps he's looking right down at us," she said, with a sudden hope. "If He is He'll be sure to send somebody to find us very soon, don't you think so?"

"Sure," said Reggie, confidently. He was delighted to have his friend take a more hopeful view of the situation. "God sees everybody all the time, you know."

"I don't quite understand how He does it," said Phyllis, a little doubtfully, "but I do hope He's looking at us this minute. I shouldn't be nearly so much afraid if I could be sure of it. Were you very much frightened that other time you were lost, Reggie?"

"Not a bit. I knew we should get home all right, just the same as I know it now."

"But you had Ellen with you that other time," said Phyllis, "and it wasn't night, either. I don't suppose a person would be so much frightened in the daylight, but I don't like the dark. I never did like it, and Nurse always leaves the light burning in the nursery till I get to sleep. She thinks it's very silly, but Aunt Helen told her she must always do it, so she does. Aunt Helen didn't like the dark either when she was a little girl."

"Well, it isn't so awfully dark now," said Reggie, encouragingly. "The stars are very bright, and perhaps by and by the moon will come up, and then it won't be dark at all. Anyhow, I'm here now, so you're not alone, the way you are in the nursery when Nurse goes down to her supper."

"But you're only a little boy," objected Phyllis. "That isn't the same thing as having somebody grown up."

"I'm eight," said Reggie, modestly, "and I'm awfully strong. I don't believe you have any idea how strong I am. Would you like to feel my muscle?"

Phyllis said she would, and Reggie forthwith seized her hand in such a grip that she screamed with pain.

"Don't ever do that again," she said, rubbing the aching fingers. "It hurts."

"Of course it does," said Reggie, proudly. "I've got more muscle than Mother and Ellen, and Daddy says he's proud of it. Why, if a burglar, or anything like that, happened to come along, I'd just--"

"A burglar!" shrieked Phyllis. "Oh, there aren't any burglars here, are there?"

"Oh, no, no, of course there are not. I only said burglar, because I couldn't think of anything else. I meant if a--mouse, or a--rat, or anything like that came along--"

"But I hate mice. I think I'm even more afraid of them than I am of burglars. A mouse ran across Nurse's pillow once at home, and she screamed so loud Aunt Helen thought the house was on fire. I think I'd like to have you hold my hand if you don't mind, only don't squeeze it the way you did before."

Reggie grasped the little outstretched hand, and as he did so his manly little heart swelled with pride.

"Don't you be one bit afraid, Phyllis," he whispered. "Nothing's going to happen, and if it does I'll take care of you all right. What makes your hand so cold?"

"I think my dress is rather thin," said Phyllis, with a shiver. "It's only muslin, you see, and I haven't got my jacket. I thought it was always warm in Egypt, even when it's winter at home."

Reggie began to unbutton his jacket.

"I guess you'd better put this on," he said. "My suit's a great deal thicker than yours, and I've got all my winter flannels on. Mother wouldn't let me leave them off when we got to Cairo, because she was afraid I might take cold and have the croup. I'm apt to have the croup when I take cold."

"Then you mustn't take off your jacket now," said Phyllis, decidedly. "No, no, Reggie, please." But Reggie had already taken it off, and was wrapping it carefully about his little friend's shoulders.

"I'm just boiling!" he announced. "I'm so hot that I'm almost in a perspiration. Isn't it funny to think of its being January at home? Daddy read in the paper that there was a big snow storm in New York the other day. I wish I'd been there. Don't you love snow storms?"

"Reggie," said Phyllis, irrelevantly, ignoring her friend's question, "don't you think we were pretty bad to run away while Nurse and Ellen were having their tea?"

"I guess we were," Reggie admitted, gravely, "but then we only meant to be gone a few minutes, and they were both such sillies. I'm sorry I frightened Ellen, though."

"I suppose they were both dreadfully frightened when they came back, and we weren't there," said Phyllis, with a sigh. "Nurse will make a terrible fuss, but your mother won't; she's so kind."

"I wish she would," cried Reggie, more conscience-smitten by this last remark of Phyllis's than by anything that had gone before. "It isn't half so bad when people scold and make a fuss about things, the way Ellen does, as when they just look sorry, and you know you've hurt their feelings. I hate to hurt Mother's feelings, and I'm afraid she's dreadfully frightened now, too. Oh, I do wish we hadn't done it!" Reggie suddenly found it necessary to rub his eyes very hard with his disengaged hand.

"There isn't anybody but Nurse to be frightened about me," said Phyllis, wistfully. "I wish I had a mother like yours. I wonder if my father would be frightened if he knew about my being out here."

"He'd come and look for us," said Reggie, confidently, "that's what men always do. They never cry and go on about things like ladies. I'm almost sure Daddy's out looking for us now. I wonder what time it is."

"I think it must be nearly bedtime," said Phyllis, drowsily. "I'm getting very sleepy, aren't you?"

"N--no," said Reggie, regretfully; "I'm not sleepy, it's too exciting. If you are, though, why don't you go to sleep? It will make the time pass so much quicker till they come for us."

"I never went to sleep out of doors, and there isn't any place to lie down," objected Phyllis.

"Let's make a bed in the sand," said Reggie, with a sudden inspiration. "It's nice and soft, and we can pile it up for a pillow. We often made beds in the sand at York Harbor."

During the next five minutes the children almost forgot their troubles in the interest of making a bed in the soft, warm sand. When it was finished Phyllis stretched herself at full length, and pronounced it very comfortable.

"Now you go to sleep, and I'll sit up and keep watch," said Reggie, cheerfully, tucking the jacket around his little friend. "That's what soldiers always have to do when there's a war, and if they fall asleep at their post they have to be shot."

"Don't talk about shooting," said Phyllis, with a shudder. "I hate guns."

"I don't, I love them, and I should think you would, too, on account of your father's being a colonel. I'd rather be a soldier than anything else in the world. Daddy says perhaps I may be one when I grow up, and if I am I hope there will be a great many wars, so I can fight and do brave things."

"Can't people ever do brave things without going to wars and shooting?" inquired Phyllis.

"I don't know; I suppose some people can. Firemen are pretty brave. If I can't be a soldier, I think I'll be a fireman. Your father was awfully brave in South Africa. I heard that nice Mr. Ward, who was on the ship, telling Daddy and Mother about him."

"Yes, I know he was," said Phyllis. "He's got a V.C. and Aunt Helen's very proud of him, because he's her brother. I don't suppose a very brave man like that would care much about a little girl, do you, especially the kind of a little girl that's afraid of guns?"

"Well, I suppose men generally like boys better than girls," was Reggie's somewhat reluctant admission. "Mother says sometimes she wishes I'd been a girl, but Daddy never does. I wish your father would hurry and come home; I want to see him."

Phyllis heaved a deep sigh, but said nothing, and Reggie also relapsed into silence. Oh, how terribly still it was! There was not a sound to be heard in all that vast wilderness of sand. It seemed to Reggie as if he must shout aloud, to break the terrible stillness, but he reflected that if he did it would only frighten Phyllis, and prevent her going to sleep. He wished he could go to sleep himself, but that seemed impossible. He had never been wider awake in his life, and besides, he was beginning to feel decidedly chilly. The day had been oppressively hot, but now that the sun had set, a cool breeze had sprung up, and was blowing sharply over the desert. In spite of his assertion to Phyllis that he was "boiling," he was conscious of uncomfortable little chills running up and down his back.

"I guess I'll get up and walk a little," he said to himself. "Sentinels always walk up and down when they're keeping watch."

But when he proposed this plan to Phyllis, she would not hear of it.

"You'll go too far away," she protested, "and then I shall be so frightened. I want you to stay right here and let me keep hold of your hand."

So Reggie yielded. He had uncomfortable forebodings of croup, but he remembered something his father had once said to him about a gentleman's never leaving a lady in trouble. It would be very unpleasant to be laid up with an attack of croup, but if it came it couldn't be helped, and in the meantime it was certainly his duty to stay with Phyllis as long as she needed his protection. So he sat still, holding his little friend's hand in his, and growing colder and colder every minute, until at last the little fingers relaxed their grasp, and Phyllis's regular breathing assured him that she was fast asleep. Then Reggie gently released his hand, and began to think of himself.

"I guess I'll dig a big hole and bury myself in the sand," he reflected, while his teeth chattered with cold. And he set to work to such good purpose that in less than five minutes he was buried up to his neck in the soft, yielding sand.

The sand was still warm from the sun, which had been blazing down upon it all day, and Reggie felt much more comfortable when he was well covered. He even began to feel a little sleepy, but roused himself with the dreadful recollection of what was done to soldiers who fell asleep when they were on duty. Oh, how still it was! If only something would happen--if only somebody would come to look for them! He wondered what his father would say to him. Of course it was a dreadful thing to run away from Ellen, and to take Phyllis with him. To be sure, Phyllis was the older, but then she was only a girl, and girls were not supposed to have as much sense as boys. Suppose nobody ever came for them. Suppose they had to stay in that terrible desert till they starved. Oh, why didn't Daddy come? All at once Reggie found that hot tears were streaming down his cheeks, and that the big choking sobs would not be kept back any longer.

Bang! Bang! Two shots rang out sharp and clear on the still night air. In a moment Reggie was sitting bolt upright staring about him in sleepy bewilderment. He did not know that he had been to sleep at all, but he must have been, for now the desert was flooded with moonlight, and it was almost as bright as day. He could not see any people, but those shots had certainly been fired from somewhere not far off.

"Phyllis," he whispered, "Phyllis, are you awake?"

A cold little hand grasped his convulsively, and a terrified little voice gasped--

"Oh, Reggie, dear, it's guns; they're shooting--what shall we do?"

"Let's keep very still, and perhaps they won't know we're here," he advised, holding his friend's hand tight. Oddly enough, it never occurred to either of them that the people who were shooting might be friendly.

"Would they--would they kill us if they found us, do you think?" faltered Phyllis, with a little frightened sob.

"I don't know. They would if they were cannibals, but I don't know whether there are any cannibals in Egypt or not."

Bang! Bang! Bang! Again the shots rang out, and this time they sounded much nearer. At the same moment a large animal, with red eyes, dashed past the terrified children, and disappeared in the shadow of a sand hill. With a piercing shriek, Phyllis struggled to her feet, and began to run, dragging her companion along with her, but she only ran a very short distance, for at the sight of three figures, with guns on their shoulders, suddenly looming into view, she uttered a second shriek, and sank in a little heap at Reggie's feet. For one awful second Reggie wavered, while his heart beat so fast that he could scarcely breathe. His first instinct was to run, run as he had never done before in all his life, but there was Phyllis, and she was a girl, and girls must be protected.

When three men, with guns over their shoulders, came hurrying up two minutes later, they started back in amazement at the sight that met their view. On the sand, lying face downward, was a little motionless figure in a white muslin dress, and standing over it, with fists clenched, and a look of fierce determination on his small, white face, was a little boy in a blue sailor suit, minus a jacket.

"Don't you dare to touch her--don't you dare to!" shouted Reggie, stamping his foot in the sand, and in the excitement of the moment, quite forgetting the fact that in all probability his enemies would not understand a word of his language. "If you've got to shoot anybody you can shoot me, but she's a girl, and if you touch her I'll--I'll kill you."

"By Jove, the kiddie's white!" exclaimed one of the three men, in unmistakably English accents. "What on earth--"

But at the sound of the English words Reggie's clenched fists had suddenly dropped to his sides.

"Why--why, you're English people!" he cried. "You're English or Americans just like us."

"To be sure we are English," said the man, laughing, "and will you have the goodness to tell us what a young man of your size is doing out here on the desert at this hour of the night?"

"We're lost," Reggie explained, and it seemed to him that never before had he heard any sound quite so pleasant as that Englishman's voice and laugh. "We're staying at Mena House, and we came out to see the Sphinx, but we couldn't find the way back, and--"

But here Reggie's reminiscences were cut short by the second of the three men, who had dropped on his knees, in the sand, and was bending anxiously over Phyllis, who still lay quite motionless, with closed eyes.

"It's a little girl, Jim," he said, "and she has fainted. Give me your flask."

The man called Jim produced from his pocket a small silver flask which he handed to his friend, and the stranger proceeded to pour a few drops of its contents between Phyllis's lips. Reggie--who had seen his mother faint on several occasions--was not as much frightened as might otherwise have been the case, and watched the proceedings of his new friends with deep interest. He already felt unlimited confidence in the two broad-shouldered young Englishmen, who both had such kind faces and such pleasant voices.

In a minute or two Phyllis opened her eyes, and lay gazing up into the face of the gentleman who was bending over her, chafing her cold little hands.

"Did I get shot?" she inquired, in a faint, far away little voice.

"Not a bit of it," said the gentleman, smiling. "You're all right, and as fit as possible. It was jackals we were trying to shoot, not little girls."

"We saw the jackal," cried Reggie, with a sudden recollection. "He ran right past us, but we didn't know what he was. Isn't it a pity you didn't get him?"

"There speaks the true British sportsman," laughed the young man called "Jim." "Are you hungry?" he added, with a sharp glance into Reggie's tired little face.

"Yes, sir," said Reggie, "I think I'm pretty hungry; at least I feel rather queer in my stomach. We haven't had anything to eat since luncheon, and that's a good while ago. But--but--please excuse me, sir; I'm not a British sportsman at all; I'm an American."

"Well, British or American, you're a good sportsman all the same," said the Englishman, laughing heartily. "It seems to me, the most important thing to be done now is to give you something to take away that queer feeling in your stomach. What do you say, Colonel, to taking the kiddies off to the camp, and giving them a feed?"

"An excellent idea," said his friend, who had in the meantime assisted Phyllis to a sitting position, though he still kept an arm protectingly around her. "The only trouble is their friends are probably frightened out of their wits about them, and I suppose we ought to get them back to civilization as soon as possible. Did I hear you say you were staying at the Mena House, my boy?"

"Yes," said Reggie, eagerly, "and I think perhaps we had better go home before we have any supper. I'm afraid my mother is very much frightened about us."

"All right," said the colonel, kindly. "Our camp is close by, and we had intended spending another night on the desert, and going in to Cairo to-morrow, but under the circumstances I think our wisest plan will be to break camp, and make for Mena House to-night. It is only a little after ten now. How long will it take us to reach Mena House from here, Hassan?"

The third man, who was not an Englishman, but an Arab guide, replied that it would not take more than an hour with the camels, and he was promptly despatched to fetch the animals--which were tethered not far off--and to pack the two gentlemen's belongings.

By this time Phyllis had quite recovered, though she still felt a little giddy, and was glad to rest her head against the colonel's shoulder.

"Are we really going to ride on camels?" she inquired in a tone of deep interest.

"To be sure we are. My friend and I have been riding on camels for the past two weeks, and you have no idea what good fun it is. You won't be afraid, will you?"

"Oh, no," said Phyllis. "I've been wanting to ride on a camel ever since we came to Egypt, but Mrs. Starr wouldn't let me. She says perhaps my father will let me when he comes home, but she doesn't like to take the responsibility. Do you know," she added, gazing wonderingly up into the colonel's face, "you look ever so much like my father's photograph?"

"Do I indeed?" said the Englishman, smiling, and giving the little head nestling so confidingly against him a kindly pat. "I have a little girl of my own, God bless her, but she is far away in England. She must be about your age, too, but you see, you are an American, and so your father must be an American as well."

"Oh, but I'm not an American," Phyllis explained, her bright, wondering eyes still fixed earnestly on the colonel's face. "Reggie is, but I'm English, and I only came to Egypt last week. I came to see my father, but when the steamer got to Alexandria he didn't come to meet us, and Mr. Starr said Nurse and I had better go to Cairo. So we did, and Mr. Starr went to find my father, but he had gone away camping, and wouldn't be back for a week. So we stayed with the Starrs in Cairo, and yesterday we all came to that hotel near where the Pyramids are, and this afternoon Reggie and I ran away to see the Sphinx while Nurse and Ellen were having their tea. It will be a week to-morrow since we came off the steamer, and Mrs. Starr says she's quite sure my father will be back very soon. You do look very, very much like his picture. Are you sure you're really not my father, please?"

"I am afraid not," said the colonel, but he was looking very earnestly into the little upturned face as he spoke, and there was a wondering, half troubled expression in his eyes. "My little Phyllis is at home with her aunt in England. I would give a good deal to have her out here, but her aunt thinks the journey too long, and--"

"Is her aunt's name Helen, and is her name Phyllis Willoughby?" demanded Reggie, who had been listening to the conversation with breathless interest.

The colonel turned upon him in amazement.

"Of course it is," he said, "but how in the world did you happen to know it?"

"Because we've been talking about you ever since we came to Egypt," shouted Reggie, jumping up and down in his excitement. "Phyllis has been worrying all the time for fear you'd be sorry she'd come, but I said I knew you wouldn't. She's so pretty and jolly for a girl, that you couldn't help liking her, especially as you're her father."

"Phyllis," repeated the colonel, his blank astonishment giving place to a sudden glad hope; "where is my little Phyllis? Not in Egypt, surely!"

"She's right here," cried Reggie, ecstatically. "Her aunt sent her, because she wanted to go to Greece, and she came on the same ship with us. If your name's Colonel Willoughby, she's your little girl. Oh, Phyllis, I told you he'd be glad--I knew he would! I say, isn't this the most exciting adventure anybody ever had?"