“We may find him,” suggested Zenas. “Not likely,” said Dick. “I fancy he thought the jig was up when he saw the crowd fall on you, as he shook the dust of that locality off his feet.” “That will leave us in a beautiful scrape; but we’re outside that hotel,” said Brad. “It was a close call there, for we barely succeeded in slipping through the fingers of the Turks. How are we going to get out of this dirty old city, Dick?” “I can’t say,” confessed Merriwell. “Talk about the wild and woolly West!” growled Brad. “Why, since the days of Sam Houston and Davy Crockett there never were such doings in Texas as we’ve struck right here in this dried-up, outlandish country. If I ever get back home to tell about these doings, I won’t dare to tell, for they sure would lynch me as a liar.” “We’re talking too much,” said Dick. “We’re attracting attention. Stop talking and keep moving.” He led the way and they followed blindly. Suddenly, as they turned from one street into another, the most appalling medley of horrible sounds burst upon their ears. It seemed that a hundred human beings were being tortured in the most excruciating manner, and were howling forth their dying agonies. There were yells, screams, roars, and, amid it all, a sort of muffled music, as of drums and other instruments. “Great catamounts!” gasped Buckhart. “We’re up against a whole tribe of Injuns at a scalp dance, or I’m mistaken!” Dick was startled and filled with wonderment. “Listen!” he urged. “Hu, ya Hu! Hu, ya Hu! Hu, ya Hu!” These were the only words they could distinguish amid that terrible howling. The professor had been agitated, but now he was the first to recover. “That cry, ‘Hu, ya Hu,’ means ‘God, oh God,’” he explained. “It is the cry of the howling dervishes. Look—there is the open door of a temple, and the sounds come from within. It is shortly after midday prayer on Friday, which is the time for the howlers to do their work.” “Well, of all howling I ever heard, that sure is about the most hair lifting,” declared Buckhart. They were compelled to pass the open door of the temple or turn back, and they decided to keep on. As they slipped past, they obtained a peep within the place. They saw a number of dancing, whirling, twisting, writhing men within, apparently in a perfect frenzy—stamping their feet on the floor and yelling madly, their lips covered with foam and their eyes closed. Others were stretched prone on the floor. Some were sitting about beating on drums and playing queer instruments. That was all they saw, for they dared not linger to look into the place, had they so desired. They had not proceeded much farther when Buckhart stopped, a look of gloom in his eyes. “Whatever are we going to do?” he inquired. “We must get out of the city just as fast as we can,” declared Gunn. “By this time it must be known that we escaped from the hotel and how we escaped.” “That’s a fact,” nodded Dick.