“Perhaps that’s what Nadia is trying to do! Perhaps she’s playing a clever game by pretending to have any interest in me and seeming indifferent to Dick. A girl best attracts a fellow by seeming indifferent to him. The girl who pursues a chap is bound to lose him, nine times out of ten. It’s the fellow who wants to do the pursuing. He loves the chase and the zest of it. Some girls know this, and they play the timid deer to perfection. Nadia Budthorne is right clever, and I’ll wager something this little game is no secret to her. “I’ve hit it at last! I’ve known all along that she really cared for Dick, and now I’ve been fool enough to help her in her play. Say, I ought to be shot! I know Dick is on the level, but how is he going to resist a clever girl like her? He might, if June Arlington were near; but June is far away, and, in my estimation, Nadia lays away over June any old time. Oh, you poor fool!” He clenched his fist and struck himself on the side of the head. Thus it happened that Professor Gunn and Dunbar Budthorne found the Texan in anything but a happy frame of mind when they returned to the hotel. They were agitated over the disappearance of Dick and Nadia, for whom they had searched and inquired ere leaving the bazaars. When they did return to the hotel it was with the expectation and hope that they might find the boy and girl there. “They will turn up all right,” declared Brad. “Dick will take care of her, never fear.” And now for the first time in his life he grew violently jealous of his bosom comrade. “If he plays me double I’ll never again have the least confidence in human nature!” he mentally cried. But when an hour passed and the missing boy and girl failed to return to the hotel Buckhart began to share the alarm of the professor and Budthorne. “If anything happens to that boy I’ll never forgive myself!” said the old pedagogue. “We must look for them,” said Dunbar. “You know what took place at the railway station. What if some of Hafsa Pasha’s tools found Dick and Nadia alone and unprotected?” Suddenly Brad Buckhart reassumed his Western manners. “Whoop!” he cried. “Let’s amble forth on the warpath! Let’s take to the trail and go out for scalps! I’m ready, and you know I can scrap some, if I don’t shine resplendent at a soirée. I’m in right good humor for a scrimmage.” Together they left the hotel and started to return to the bazaar; but they had not proceeded far when they were stopped by the appearance of an open carriage, in which were Dick and Ras al Had. Dick called to them, and the carriage stopped. Young Merriwell sprang down. Budthorne, pale and shaking with apprehension, rushed forward and clutched him, demanding to know what had become of Nadia. Dick told the whole story in as few words as possible.