W pustyni i w puszczy. English
Page 37
day one of theseclouds burst above their heads like a barrel from which the hoops hadflown off and sprinkled them with a warm and copious rain whichfortunately was of brief duration. Afterwards the weather became fineand they could ride farther. Guinea-fowls again appeared in suchnumbers that Stas shot at them without dismounting from his horse, andin this manner got five, which more than sufficed for one meal, evencounting Saba. Travel in the refreshed air was not burdensome, and theabundance of game and water removed fears of hunger and thirst. On thewhole everything passed more easily than they had anticipated. So thengood humor did not desert Stas, and, riding beside the little girl, hechattered merrily with her and at times even joked.
"Do you know, Nell," he said, when for a while he stopped the horsesunder a great bread-fruit tree from which Kali and Mea cut off fruitresembling huge melons, "at times it seems to me that I am aknight-errant."
"And what is a knight-errant?" asked Nell, turning her pretty headtowards him.
"Long, long ago in the mediaeval days there were knights who rode overthe world, looking for adventure. They fought with giants and dragons,and do you know that each one had his lady, whom he protected anddefended?"
"And am I such a lady?"
Stas pondered for a while, after which he replied:
"No, you are too small. All those others were grown up."
And it never occurred to him that probably no knight-errant had everperformed as much for his lady as he had done for his little sister.Plainly it appeared to him that whatever he had done was done as amatter of course.
But Nell felt aggrieved at his words; so with a pout she said:
"And you once said in the desert that I acted like a person ofthirteen. Aha!"
"Well, that was once. But you are eight."
"Then after ten years I shall be eighteen."
"A great thing! And I shall be twenty-four! At such age a man does notthink of any ladies for he has something else to do; that isself-evident."
"And what will you do?"
"I shall be an engineer or a sailor or, if there is a war in Poland, Ishall go to fight, just as my father did."
While she asked uneasily:
"But you will return to Port Said?"
"We both must return there first."
"To papa!" the little girl replied.
And her eyes were dimmed with sorrow and longing. Fortunately thereflew at that moment a small flock of wonderfully fine parrots, gray,with rosy heads, and a rosy lining under their wings. The children atonce forgot about their previous conversation and began to follow theflight with their eyes.
The little flock circled about a group of euphorbias and lighted uponsycamores, growing at some distance, amidst the branches of whichresounded voices similar to a wordy conference or a quarrel.
"Those are parrots which are very easily taught to talk," Stas said."When we stop at a place for a length of time, I will try to catch onefor you."
"Oh, Stas, thank you!" answered Nell gleefully. "I will call it Daisy."
In the meantime Mea and Kali, having cut off fruit from the bread-fruittree, loaded the horses with it, and the little caravan proceeded. Inthe afternoon it began to cloud and at times brief showers occurred,filling the crevices and the depressions in the earth. Kali predicted agreat downpour, so it occurred to Stas that the ravine, which wasbecoming narrower and narrower, would not be a safe shelter for thenight, for it could change into a torrent. For this reason hedetermined to pass the night above, and this decision delighted Nell,particularly when Kali, who was sent to reconnoitre, returned andannounced that not far away was a small grove composed of varioustrees, and in it many monkeys, not as ugly as the baboons which up tothat time they had met.
Chancing thereafter upon a place at which the rocky walls were low andsloped gradually, he led the horses out, and before it grew dark theybuilt a barricade for the night. Nell's tent stood on a high and dryspot close to a big white-ant hillock, which barred the access from oneside and for that reason lessened the labor of building the zareba.
Near-by stood a large tree with widely spread boughs which, covered bydense foliage, furnished shelter against rain. In front of the zarebagrew single clumps of trees and further a thick forest entangled withclimbing plants, beyond which loftily shot out crowns of strange palmtrees resembling gigantic fans or outspread peacock tails.
Stas learned from Kali that before the second rainy season, that is, inautumn, it was dangerous to pass the night under these palm trees, forthe huge-fruit, at that time ripe, breaks off unexpectedly and fallsfrom a considerable distance with such force that it can kill a personor even a horse. At present, however, the fruit was in bud, and in thedistance before the sun set there could be seen, under the crowns,agile little monkeys, which, leaping gaily, chased each other.
Stas, with Kali, prepared a great supply of wood, sufficient for thewhole night, and, as at times strong blasts of hot air broke out, theyreinforced the zareba with pickets which the young negro whittled withGebhr's sword and stuck in the ground. This precaution was not at allsuperfluous, as a powerful whirlwind could scatter the thorny boughswith which the zareba was constructed and facilitate an attack bybeasts of prey.
However, immediately after sunset the wind ceased, and instead, the airbecame sultry and heavy. Through the rifts in the clouds the starsglittered here and there, but afterwards the night became so utterlydark that one could not see a step ahead. The little wanderers groupedabout the fire, while their ears were assailed by the loud cries andshrieks of monkeys who in the adjacent forest created a veritablebedlam. This was accompanied by the whining of jackals and by variousother voices in which could be recognized uneasiness and fright beforesomething which under the cover of darkness threatened every livingbeing in the wilderness.
Suddenly the voices subsided for in the dusky depths resounded thegroans of a lion. The horses, which were pastured at some distance onthe young jungle, began to approach the fire, starting up suddenly ontheir fettered fore legs, while the hair on Saba, who usually was sobrave, bristled, and with tail curled under him, he nestled close tothe people, evidently seeking their protection.
The groaning again resounded, as though it came from under the ground;deep, heavy, strained, as if the beast with difficulty drew it from itspowerful lungs. It proceeded lowly over the ground, alternatelyincreased and subsided, passing at times into a hollow, prodigiouslymournful moan.
"Kali, throw fuel into the fire," commanded Stas.
The negro threw upon the camp-fire an armful of boughs so hastily thatat first whole sheaves of sparks burst out, after which a high flameshot up.
"Stas, the lion will not attack us, will he?" whispered Nell, pullingthe boy by the sleeve.
"No, he will not attack us. See how high the zareba is."
And speaking thus, he actually believed that danger did not threatenthem, but he was alarmed about the horses, which pressed more and moreclosely to the fence and might trample it down.
In the meantime the groans changed into the protracted, thunderous roarby which all living creatures are struck with terror, and the nerves ofpeople, who do not know what fear is, shake, just as the window-panesrattle from distant cannonading.
Stas cast a fleeting glance at Nell, and seeing her quivering chin andmoist eyes, said:
"Do not fear; don't cry."
And she answered as if with difficulty:
"I do not want to cry--only my eyes perspire--oh!"
The last ejaculation burst from her lips because at that moment fromthe direction of the forest thundered a second roar even stronger thanthe first for it was nearer. The horses began to push upon the zarebaand were it not for the long and hard-as-steel thorns of the acaciabranches, they would have demolished it. Saba growled and at the sametime trembled like a leaf, while Kali began to repeat with a brokenvoice:
"Master, two! two! two!"
And the lions, aware of each other's presence, did not cease roaring,and the horrible concert continued in the darkness incessantly,
forwhen one beast became silent the other began again. Stas soon could notdistinguish from where the sounds came, as the echoes repeated them inthe ravine; rock sent them back to rock, they ascended and descended,filling the forest and the jungle, and the entire darkness with thunderand fear.
To the boy one thing seemed certain, and that was that they approachednearer and nearer. Kali perceived likewise that the lions ran about theencampment making a smaller circle each moment, and that, preventedfrom making an attack only by the glare of the flames, they wereexpressing their dissatisfaction and fear by their roar.
Evidently, however, he thought that danger threatened only the horses,as, spreading his fingers, he said:
"The lions will kill one, two, not all! not all!"
"Throw wood into the fire," repeated Stas.
A livelier flame burst forth; the roars suddenly ceased. But Kali,raising his