thickets of the hills? Would he find death, or slavery, orsalvation for Nell?
It was imperative to ascertain this. He could not retreat now, nor didhe desire to. After a while he stepped in the direction of the fire,moving as quietly as possible and holding the breath in his bosom.Having proceeded thus about a hundred paces he unexpectedly heard fromthe direction of the jungle the snorting of horses and again stopped.In the moonlight he counted five horses. For the dervishes this wouldnot be enough, but he assumed that the rest were concealed in the highgrass. He was only surprised that there were no guards near them norhad these guards lighted any fires above to scare away the wildanimals. But he thanked the Lord that it was so, as he could proceedfarther without detection.
The luster on the rocks became more and more distinct. Before a quarterof an hour passed, Stas found himself at a place at which the oppositerock was most illuminated, which indicated that at its base a fire mustbe burning.
Then, crawling slowly, he crept to the brink and glanced below.
The first object which struck his eyes was a big white tent; before thetent stood a canvas field bed, and on it lay a man attired in a whiteEuropean dress. A little negro, perhaps twelve years old, was addingdry fuel to the fire which illumined the rocky wall and a row ofnegroes sleeping under it on both sides of the tent.
Stas in one moment slid down the declivity to the bottom of the ravine.
XI
For some time from exhaustion and emotion he could not utter a word,and stood panting heavily before the man lying on the bed, who also wassilent and stared at him with an amazement bordering almost uponunconsciousness.
Finally the latter exclaimed:
"Nasibu! Are you there?"
"Yes, master," answered the negro lad.
"Do you see any one any one standing there before me?"
But before the boy was able to reply Stas recovered his speech.
"Sir," he said, "my name is Stanislas Tarkowski. With little MissRawlinson I have escaped from dervish captivity and we are hiding inthe jungle. But Nell is terribly sick; and for her sake I beg for help."
The unknown continued to stare at him, blinking with his eyes, and thenrubbed his brow with his hand.
"I not only see but hear!" he said to himself. "This is no illusion!What? Help? I myself am in need of help. I am wounded."
Suddenly, however, he shook himself as though out of a wild dream ortorpor, gazed more consciously, and, with a gleam of joy in his eyes,said:
"A white boy!--I again see a white one! I welcome you whoever you are.Did you speak of some sick girl? What do you want of me?"
Stas repeated that the sick girl was Nell, the daughter of Mr.Rawlinson, one of the directors of the Canal; that she already hadsuffered from two attacks of fever and must die if he did not obtainquinine to prevent the third.
"Two attacks--that is bad!" answered the unknown. "But I can give youas much quinine as you want. I have several jars of it which are of nouse to me now."
Speaking thus, he ordered little Nasibu to hand him a big tin box,which apparently was a small traveling drug store; he took out of ittwo rather large jars filled with a powder and gave them to Stas.
"This is half of what I have. It will last you for a year even."
Stas had a desire to shout from sheer delight, so he began to thank himwith as much rapture as if his own life were involved.
The unknown nodded his head several times, and said:
"Good, good, my name is Linde; I am a Swiss from Zurich. Two days ago Imet with an accident. A wart-hog wounded me severely."
Afterwards he addressed the lad:
"Nasibu, fill my pipe."
Then he said to Stas:
"In the night-time the fever is worse and my mind becomes confused. Buta pipe clears my thoughts. Truly, did you say that you had escaped fromdervish captivity and are hiding in the jungle? Is it so?"
"Yes, sir. I said it."
"And what do you intend to do?"
"Fly to Abyssinia."
"You will fall into the hands of the Mahdists; whose divisions areprowling all along the boundary."
"We cannot, however, undertake anything else."
"Ah, a month ago I could still have given you aid. But now I amalone--dependent only upon Divine mercy and that black lad."
Stas gazed at him with astonishment.
"And this camp?"
"It is the camp of death."
"And those negroes?"
"Those negroes are sleeping and will not awaken any more."
"I do not understand--"
"They are suffering from the sleeping sickness.* [* Recentinvestigations have demonstrated that this disease is inoculated inpeople by the bite of the same fly "tsetse" which kills oxen andhorses. Nevertheless its bite causes the sleeping sickness only incertain localities. During the time of the Mahdist rebellion the causeof the disease was unknown.] Those are men from beyond the Great Lakeswhere this terrible disease is continually raging and all fell prey toit, excepting those who previously died of small-pox. Only that boyremains to me."
Stas, just before, was struck by the fact that at the time when he slidinto the ravine not a negro stirred or even quivered, and that duringthe whole conversation all slept--some with heads propped on the rock,others with heads drooping upon their breasts.
"They are sleeping and will not awaken any more?" he asked, as thoughhe had not yet realized the significance of what he had heard.
And Linde said:
"Ah! This Africa is a charnel house."
But further conversation was interrupted by the stamping of the horses,which, startled at something in the jungle, came jumping with fetteredlegs to the edge of the valley, desiring to be nearer to the men andthe light.
"That is nothing--those are horses," the Swiss said. "I captured themfrom the Mahdists whom I routed a few weeks ago. There were threehundred of them; perhaps more. But they had principally spears, and mymen Remingtons, which now are stacked under that wall, absolutelyuseless. If you need arms or ammunition take all that you want. Take ahorse also; you will return sooner to your patient--how old is she?"
"Eight," Stas replied.
"Then she is still a child-- Let Nasibu give you tea, rice, coffee, andwine for her. Take of the supplies whatever you want, and to-morrowcome for more."
"I shall surely return to thank you once more from my whole heart andhelp you in whatever I can."
And Linde said:
"It is good even to gaze at a European face. If you had come earlier Iwould have been more conscious. Now the fever is taking hold of me, forI see double. Are there two of you above me? No, I know that you arealone and that this is only the fever. Ah! this Africa!"
And he closed his eyes.
A quarter of an hour later Stas started to return from this strangecamp of sleep and death, but this time on horseback. The night wasstill dark, but now he paid no heed to any dangers which he mightencounter in the high grass. He kept, however, more closely to theriver, assuming that both ravines must lead to it. After all it wasconsiderably easier to return, as in the stillness of the night camefrom a distance the roar of the waterfall; the clouds in the westernsky were scattered and, besides the moon, the zodiacal light shonestrongly. The boy pricked the horse on the flanks with the broadArabian stirrups and rode at almost breakneck speed, saying in hissoul: "What are lions and panthers to me? I have quinine for my littleone!" And from time to time he felt the jars with his hand, as if hewanted to assure himself that he actually possessed them and that itwas not all a dream. Various thoughts and pictures flitted through hisbrain. He saw the wounded Swiss to whom he felt immense gratitude andwhom he pitied so heartily that, at first, during their conversation,he took him for a madman; he saw little Nasibu with skull as round as aball, and the row of sleeping "pagahs," and the barrels of theRemingtons stacked against the rock and glistening in the fire. He wasalmost certain that the battle which Linde mentioned was with Smain'sdivision, and it seemed strange to him to think that
Smain might havefallen.
With these visions mingled the constant thought of Nell. He pictured tohimself how surprised she would be to behold on the morrow a whole jarof quinine, and that she probably would take him for a performer ofmiracles. "Ah," he said to himself, "if I had acted like a coward andhad not gone to ascertain where that smoke came from I would not haveforgiven myself during the rest of my life."
After the lapse of a little less than an hour the roar of the waterfallbecame quite distinct and, from the croaking of frogs, he conjecturedthat he already was near the expansion where he had previously shotaquatic birds. In the moon's luster he even recognized in the distancethe trees standing above it. Now it was necessary to exercise greatercaution, as that overflow formed at the same time a watering place towhich all the animals of the locality came, for the banks of the
W pustyni i w puszczy. English Page 51
