CHAPTER X.
PRISONERS.
FOR two or three minutes after the door was shut and bolted not a wordwas spoken by the three boys. All were sorely bruised, and bleeding frommany cuts and wounds, and breathless and exhausted by the way in whichthey had been carried along and the force with which they had beenthrown down. Jack was the first to speak.
"I say, how are you both--are either of you badly hurt?"
"I don't know yet," Tucker replied. "It seems to me there is nothingleft of me. I am sore and smarting all over. How are you, Arthur?"
"I don't know," Arthur said. "I wonder that I am alive at all, but Idon't know that I am really much hurt."
"Well, let us try and see," Jack said.
"See!" Jim repeated scornfully. "Why, I can't see my own hand."
"Well, I mean let us find out if we can stand up and move about. Weshall find out, anyhow, whether any of our bones are broken."
With some difficulty and with many exclamations of pain the lads rose totheir feet.
"Are both you fellows up?" Jim asked.
"Yes."
"Well, then, we can't be very bad, anyhow. My arms are very stiff, andit seems to me that my jacket is soaked with blood, but where it comesfrom I do not know. I feel as if my head and face were one mass of cutsand bruises."
"That is just how I feel, Jim," Arthur replied, and Jack agreed.
"Well, this is the rummest affair!" Jim said more cheerfully, now itseemed that none of them had sustained any very serious injury. "Therewere we a few hours ago eating ices and enjoying ourselves stunningly;then this frightful row took place (what it was all about I have not theleast idea), and just as it seemed all up with us the fellow this placebelongs to (at least I suppose it belongs to him) steps in and saves us,and then we are dragged up here and chucked into this hole."
"It seems like a dream," Arthur said.
"It is a good deal too real to be a dream, it is a mighty unpleasantreality. Well, I wish there was a little daylight so that we could seewhat has happened to us and tie ourselves up a bit; as it is, there isnothing to do but to lie down again and try to get off to sleep. I say,won't there be a row after this, when they get to know at home what hastaken place. I wonder what they are going to do with us in the morning?Do you think they mean to kill us, Jack?"
"No, I should not think there was a chance of that. This fellow wouldnot have taken us out of the hands of the mob just for the pleasure ofcutting our throats privately. Still the rough way we were carried alongand thrown down here does not look as if he did it from any feeling ofkindness," Jack remarked.
"No, I do not suppose he did it from kindness, Jack; anyhow, it does notlook like it. Well there is no use halloing about that now, let us tryand get a sleep. My head feels as if it was swollen up as big as afour-gallon keg."
Accustomed not unfrequently to get a nap when on watch under the lee ofthe bulwark, the hardness of the ground did not trouble the boys, andbefore many minutes they were all asleep.--Jack and Tucker were awakenedby a shout from Arthur.
"Watch on deck!"
They started into a sitting position and looked round. A ray of sunlightwas streaming in through an opening some six inches square, high up onthe wall.
"Well, we are objects!" Jim said, looking at his two companions. Theywere indeed; their faces were bruised and stained with blood, their hairmatted together. Arthur's right eye was completely closed, and there wasa huge swelling from a jagged bruise over the eyebrow. Jack had receiveda clear cut almost across the forehead, from which the blood was stilloozing. Jim's face was swollen and bruised all over, and one of his earswas cut nearly off. He was inclined to bear his injuries philosophicallyuntil Jack told him that half of his ear was gone. This put him into afurious rage, and he vowed vengeance against the whole of the Egyptianrace.
"Fancy going about all one's life with half an ear. Why, every boy inthe street will point at it, and one will be a regular laughing-stock.You fellows' wounds are nothing to that."
"You will have to wear your hair long, Jim; it won't be noticed much ifyou do."
"Don't tell me," Jim replied. "I tell you I shall be a regular sightwherever I go. I shall have fellows asking me what has happened to me.Now, had it been an arm, chaps would have been sorry for me; but who isgoing to pity a man for losing half an ear?"
"I don't think I would mind giving half an ear just at present for agood drink and a bucket of water to wash in."
"Nor would I," Arthur agreed.
"That is all very well," Jim grumbled. "I have lost half an ear andhaven't got any water to drink."
"Well," Jack said, "I suppose they do not mean to starve us anyhow, sono doubt they will bring us something before long."
Little more was said. Their tongues were swollen, their mouths parched,they still felt dizzy and stupid from the blows they had received; sothey sat down and waited. The room they were in was apparently anunderground cellar, generally used as a store-room. It was about twelvefeet square, and the only light was that obtained through the littleopening in the wall. Jack thought as he looked at it that if one of themstood on another's shoulders he could look out and see where they were.But as that mattered nothing at present, and they were not in the moodfor any exertion, he held his tongue.
In about an hour a footstep was heard descending some stairs, then boltswere undone, and two Egyptians with swords and pistols in their girdlesentered. They brought with them some bread and a jar of water. Jackjumped up.
"Look here," he said, "that is all right enough to eat and drink, but wewant some water to wash with. Wash, you understand?" he went on as themen looked at him evidently without comprehending. "Wash, you see,--likethis;" and he went through a pantomime of washing his hands and slushinghis head and face. The Egyptians grinned and nodded; they said a word toeach other and then retired.
"I believe it is all right," Jack said, "and that they are going tobring some."
A long draught of water from the jar did them an immense deal of good,but none had at present any inclination to eat. Presently the steps wereheard coming down the stairs again, and the men entered, bringing in alarge pan made of red earthenware, and containing three or four gallonsof water.
"Good men!" Jim exclaimed enthusiastically; "I will spare your lives forthis when I slay the rest of your countrymen," and he shook theEgyptians warmly by the hand. "I have nothing to give you," he went on,"for they turned our pockets inside out; but I owe you one, and will payyou if I ever get a chance. Now, lads, this is glorious!"
For half an hour the three boys knelt round the pan, bathing their facesand heads. Then they stripped to the waist, and after a general washtore strips off their shirts and bandaged the various cuts they hadreceived on the head, shoulders, and arms. In no case were theseserious, although they were deep enough to be painful.
"It's nothing short of a miracle," Jack said, "that we have got off soeasily. If the beggars had not been in such a hurry to get at us thatthey got into each other's way they would have done for us to acertainty; but they were all slashing away together, and not one couldget a fair drive at us. Well, I feel about five hundred per cent. betternow. Let us get on our things again and have breakfast. I feel as if Icould tuck into that bread now."
Just as they had got on their clothes the door again opened, and agigantic negro entered. He carried with him a wooden box of the shape ofa bandbox. He opened this and took out a melon and three large bunchesof grapes, laid them down on the ground without a word, nodded, andwent out again.
"My eye, this is first-rate," Jim said in delight. "Well, you see, it isnot going to be so bad after all. That chap who brought us up here isevidently friendly, though why he should have sent us the fruit byitself instead of with the bread and water I do not know. However, nevermind that now; let us set to."
The boys enjoyed their breakfast immensely. They first ate the grapes;when these were finished they looked longingly at the melon, which was avery large one.
"How on earth a
re we to tackle that?" Jim asked. "Our knives have gonewith our other things."
"Perhaps we can find something to cut it up," Jack said, getting up andturning over the litter on the floor with his foot. For two or threeminutes he searched about. "Hurrah!" he exclaimed at last, "here is abit of old hoop-iron that will do first-rate. It is not stiff enough tocut with, but I think we can saw with it, if one takes hold of eachend."
Without much difficulty the melon was cut into three parts, and devouredto the rind. Breakfast over they had time to consider their situationagain.
"I expect," Jack said, "this pasha or whatever he is who has got us hereis waiting to see how things go. If the Egyptians get the best of it hewill hand us over to Arabi, or whoever comes to be their chief. If weget the best of it he will give us up, and say that he has saved ourlives. That would account, you see, for this breakfast business. He onlysent us bread and water by his Egyptian fellows, and he sent us thefruit privately by that black slave of his, whom he can rely upon tohold his tongue."
"I should not be surprised if that was it, Jack. That makes it lookhopeful for us, for there is no doubt in the world who will get the bestof it in the end. We may not thrash the beggars for a time. Alexandriais a big place, and there are a lot of troops here, and they can bringany number more down from Cairo by rail. The crews of the ships of warhere are nothing like strong enough to land and do the whole business atonce; besides, they have no end of forts and batteries. I expect it willbe some time before they can bring ships and troops from England tocapture this place."
"But there are the Italians and French," Arthur said. "They are just asmuch interested in the matter as we are, for I expect there were a goodmany more Italians and French killed yesterday than there were English."
"Ten to one, I should think," Jim agreed. "I don't think there are manyEnglish here, except the big merchants and bankers and that sort ofthing, while all the small shops seem to have either French, Italian, orGreek names over the door. Well, if it is going on like this, we canafford to wait for a bit."
"Look here, Arthur," Jack said, "I will stand under that opening, andyou get on my shoulders and look out. I don't suppose you will see much,but one likes to know where one is and which way one is looking. We knowwe are somewhere on the high ground beside the town. We must be lookingsomewhere north-east by the way that gleam of sunlight comes in. Verylikely you can get a glimpse of the sea." Jack placed himself againstthe wall, and Jim helped Arthur on to his shoulders.
"Yes, I can see the sea," Arthur said as soon as his head reached thelevel of the loop-hole. "I can see the outer harbour, and several shipslying there and boats rowing about."
"Well, that is something anyhow," Jim said as Arthur leapt down again."We shall be able to see any men-of-war that come in, and form some ideaas to what is going on. How thick is the wall?" Jim went on.
"I should say quite a couple of feet thick. I could only see a smallpatch of the water through it."
"Then I am afraid there is no chance of our working our way out," Jimsaid. "The only way of escape I can see would be to spring on those twofellows who bring our food. We are stronger than they are, I am sure,and we might master them."
"I don't expect we could do it without noise," Jack said. "Besides, theyhave got pistols, and we certainly could not master them without theirbeing able to shout. We might manage one easy enough, if one sprang onhim and held his arms and prevented him getting his pistol, and anotherclapped his hands over his mouth; but the three of us could not managetwo silently. Besides, I should not like to hurt them after theirbringing us that water to wash in."
"No; we certainly couldn't do that," the other boys agreed.
"Besides," Jack went on, "we do not know where this staircase leads. Butno doubt it goes up into the house, and when we got to the top someonewould see us at once; and even if we broke through there would be such achase we should never get away, and anyhow could not pass through thetown down to the port and steal a boat. No, Jim, I don't think it is theleast use in the world trying to escape that way. If we could digthrough the wall and make our way out at night, and get quietly downamong the sand-hills by the shore, we might manage to get hold of a boatand row out to the ships; but I do not see that there is any chance ofour being able to do that when we haven't got as much as a knife amongus."
Jim examined the walls. "There would not be much difficulty in workingthrough them if we had a couple of good knives, they are made ofsun-dried bricks. However, we will hunt about among this rubbish and seeif we can find some more bits of iron. Anyhow, we can wait a day or twobefore we make up our minds about it and see what comes of it. I vote weclear up this litter a bit, and chuck it out through the opening. Thereis a close, musty smell in the place. The opening will be very handy forchucking everything out and keeping the place as clean as we can."
"Yes, Jim; but the rubbish will be very useful to us if we decide to tryto cut our way out, as we can put a lot of brick-dust and stuff underit. It would not do to throw that out of the window, for it would beseen at once by anyone passing."
"Yes; you are right there, Jack. Well then, we have nothing to do but totake it as easy as we can."
The closest search through the rubbish did not bring to light any otherpiece of iron, and the bit they had used as a knife was so thin andrusted as to be altogether useless for the purpose for which theyrequired it.
The days passed slowly. The two Egyptians brought bread and waterregularly, and the Nubian as regularly additions to theirmeal--sometimes fruit, sometimes a dish of meat. Three bundles of maizestraw were brought down the first evening to serve as beds for them, andon the following morning three or four men came down and swept up allthe rubbish from the floor. Once every two days they were taken outunder a guard of three men with swords and muskets, and allowed to sitdown in the sun, with their backs against the wall, for an hour or two.The shipping still lay in the harbour, over which they commanded a goodview; and after a few days they saw that several more vessels of war hadentered it.
"I can see that the boats are going backwards and forwards to theshore," Jim said, "so there is no regular war begun yet."
"Look, Jim, over there to the right," Jack said. "There is a swarm ofmen at work. I believe they must be getting up a fresh battery there.That looks as if the Egyptians had made up their minds to fight."
"So much the worse, Jack. I don't mind how much they fight when we areout of their hands (we know what will come of that when it begins), butif they fight while we are here it may turn out bad for us, whicheverway it goes."