Then the sheik turned to Dick and his companions and bade them prepare to leave the Bedouin camp. “Before the sun sinks to rest,” he said, “you shall be with your friends, both of whom are safe and well.” It was not necessary for our friends to spend any time in preparing to depart. They were ready and eager to go. “What of Bunol?” asked Dick. “We will leave him here with the friends he has chosen,” said Ras al Had. An hour later, when they were miles away, the old sheik turned to Dick, a grim smile on his lips. “Your enemy will trouble you no more,” he declared. “You will never again behold his face.” “Why not?” questioned Dick. “Do you mean that he will be slain?” “No; but the fate he chose for you shall be his. He condemned you to be carried a slave into Arabia. That is to be his doom. It is the command of Ras al Had, which Ali Beha must obey.” CHAPTER XXIV—THE FATE OF A FOE Dick and Brad were lounging in their room in the Shepherd’s Hotel, Cairo, when Professor Gunn came sauntering in, with an unusually springy step, humming a tune. “Ah, ha!” he cried, striking a pose. “You two rascals have your heads together, I see. What are you planning? What new trouble are you hatching up? Can’t you rest easy for a brief time? I have enjoyed the last two weeks. Since our escape from Damascus, we have seen Alexandria, Cairo, the Pyramids, and so forth, and nothing unusual has happened. We have not once been in peril of losing our lives, and so now, I suppose, you are seeking to devise some method of getting us into danger. Desist—I bid you desist! Already my nerves have been shattered and my constitution ruined by what we have passed through. It was pretty bad in England. It was worse in Italy. It became still worse in Greece. We had to hasten out of Constantinople to escape with our heads. But the grand climax was reached in Syria. I tell you, boys, life was becoming too strenuous for a man of my years. A few more hairbreadth escapes would have brought about my utter collapse. I should have had heart failure. But you seemed to enjoy it. And now I suppose you are seeking to devise some means of getting us all into more trouble of the same sort. I order you to stop it!” “It happened that we were just speaking of Miguel Bunol and his fate,” smiled Dick. “I can’t help feeling pity for the unfortunate fellow, but Brad insists that he received nothing worse than he deserved.” “That’s what I do,” put in the Texan, rising. “Bunol was thoroughly bad and vicious. His crookedness was certain to get him hanged in the end, unless some equally severe punishment fell upon him.” “His fate seems to be even worse than death on the gallows,” said Dick. “Well, pard, have you forgotten that he first condemned you to that fate?” “No, but——”