The Turk had held the drawn knife hidden at his side. Now he made a pantherish leap toward the sheik and struck with the weapon. Ras al Had threw up his arm. The blade was driven through the muscles of the forearm, but with a sweep the Arab sent Hafsa Pasha reeling. At the same time he unsheathed his sword. When the Turk recovered and sprang forward again he was met by the sheik, who drove the keen sword straight through Hafsa Pasha’s body. Brad Buckhart had reached Nadia, and she fainted in his arms. CHAPTER XVII—A POSITION OF PERIL There was a great uproar in Damascus. Hafsa Pasha, an exiled Turk, once a prime favorite of the sultan, had been slain in a house within the city limits. Rumors were flying thick. There were many wild stories passing from lip to lip. It was said that some foreigners had been concerned in the murder of the Pasha. The Moslems were aroused, and they cried out for vengeance on the murderers. Some said that a young and beautiful girl was connected with the affair. It was said that she had tried to delude the Pasha and rob him, and that in the end her friends, aided by a number of Arabs, had slain him in the house to which the girl decoyed him. These stories aroused the followers of “the true faith” to a high pitch of resentment against all “infidels” in the city at that time. Foreign visitors were warned against appearing on the streets, as they were almost certain to be insulted, roughly treated, and possibly slain. The foreigners stopping at the German hotel were greatly alarmed. Many of them were planning to get out of the city as soon as possible. Some had heard the early mutterings of the storm and departed on the train for Beirut that day. Professor Z. Gunn was in a state of great distress. He found Dick Merriwell and Brad Buckhart in earnest consultation in their room and seized each by an arm, exclaiming: “This is what it has come to! You can see! We’re still in the sultan’s domain. There will be an uprising. These fanatical Mohammedans will massacre every Christian and foreigner they can find in the place! I feel it coming. The streets of Damascus will flow with blood before night!” “You’re excited, professor,” said Dick. “Excited!” squawked the old man, nearly losing his false teeth and clapping his hand over his mouth to keep them from popping out. “Ugh! Oogah-um! Cluck! Who wouldn’t be excited? There is something to get excited over. We’re almost certain to be murdered!” “I hardly think,” said Merriwell, “that the Turks will carry it that far. We are citizens of the United States, with passports in our pockets, and the sultan would have trouble on his hands with Yankee Doodle Land if his subjects were to murder us.” “You bet your boots!” put in Buckhart.