Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Category: Nonfiction
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and we cannot take him with us. Well then, what later? Weshall go and he will remain here and again will endure the pangs ofhunger until he dies. Then we shall be all the more sorry for him."
Nell saddened very much and for some time sat in silence, evidently notknowing what reply to make to these just remarks, but after a while sheraised her head and, brushing aside the tufts of hair which fell overher eyes, turned her gaze, full of confidence, on the boy.
"I know," she said, "that if you want to, you will get him out of theravine."
"I?"
And she stretched out her little finger, touched Stas' hand with it,and repeated:
"You."
The sly little woman understood that her confidence would flatter theboy and from that moment he would ponder on how to free the elephant.
V
The night passed quietly and though, on the southern side of the sky,big clouds gathered, the morning was beautiful. By Stas' orders, Kaliand Mea, immediately after breakfast, began to gather melons and acaciapods as well as fresh leaves and all kinds of fodder, which theydeposited upon the brink of the ravine.
As Nell firmly insisted upon feeding her new friend herself, Stas cutfor her from a young bifurcated fig tree something in the shape of apitchfork in order to make it easier for her to shove down the suppliesto the bottom of the ravine. The elephant trumpeted from morn,evidently calling for his refreshments, and when afterwards he beheldon the brink that same little white being who had fed him the previousday, he greeted her with a joyful gurgle and at once stretched out histrunk towards her. In the morning light he appeared to the childrenstill more prodigious than on the preceding day. He was lean butalready looked brisker and turned his small eyes almost joyfully onNell. Nell even claimed that his fore legs had grown thicker during thenight, and began to shove fodder with such zeal that Stas had torestrain her and in the end when she got out of breath too much, takeher place at the work. Both enjoyed themselves immensely; theelephant's "whims" amused them especially. In the beginning he ateeverything which fell at his feet, but soon, having satisfied the firstcravings of hunger, he began to grow fastidious. Chancing upon a plantwhich was not to his taste, he beat it over his fore leg and afterwardstossed it upwards with his trunk, as if he wanted to say, "Eat thisdainty yourselves;" finally, after having appeased his hunger andthirst, he began to fan with his prodigious ears with evidentcontentment.
"I am sure," said Nell, "that if we went down to him he would not hurtus."
And she began to call to him:
"Elephant, dear elephant, isn't it true you would not do any harm tous?"
And when the elephant nodded his trunk in reply she turned to Stas:
"There, you see he says 'Yes.'"
"That may be," Stas replied. "Elephants are very intelligent animalsand this one undoubtedly understands that we both are necessary to him.Who knows whether he does not feel a little gratitude towards us? Butit would be better not to try yet, and particularly not to let Sabatry, as the elephant surely would kill him. But with time they becomeeven friendly."
Further transports over the elephant were interrupted by Kali who,foreseeing that he should have to work every day to feed the giganticbeast, approached Stas with an ingratiating smile and said:
"Great master, kill the elephant, and Kali will eat him instead ofgathering grass and branches."
But the "great master" was now a hundred miles from a desire to killthe elephant and, as in addition he was impulsive, he retorted:
"You are a donkey."
Unfortunately he forgot the Kiswahili word for donkey and said it inEnglish. Kali, not understanding English, evidently took it for somekind of compliment or praise for himself, as a moment later thechildren heard how he, addressing Mea, boastfully said:
"Mea has a dark skin and dark brain, but Kali is a donkey."
After which he added with pride:
"The great master himself said that Kali is a donkey."
In the meantime Stas, ordering both to tend the little lady as the eyein the head and in case of any accident to summon him at once, took therifle and went to the detached rock which blocked the ravine. Arrivingat the place he inspected if attentively, examined all its cracks,inserted a stick into a crevice which he found near the bottom, andcarefully measured its depths; afterwards he returned slowly to thecamp and, opening the cartridge box, began to count the cartridges.
He had barely counted three hundred when from a baobab tree growingabout fifty paces from the tent Mea's voice resounded.
"Master! Master!"
Stas approached the giant tree, whose trunk, hollowed through decaynear the ground, looked like a tower, and asked:
"What do you want?"
"Not far away can be seen zebras, and further on antelopes are feeding."
"Good! I will take a rifle and go, for it is necessary to cure meat.But why did you climb the tree, and what are you doing there?"
The girl answered in her sad, melodious voice:
"Mea saw a nest of gray parrots and wanted to bring a young one to thelittle lady, but the nest is empty, so Mea will not get any beads forher neck."
"You will get them because you love the little lady."
The young negress came down the rugged bark as quickly as possible, andwith eyes glistening with joy began to repeat:
"Oh! Yes! Yes! Mea loves her very much--and beads also."
Stas gently stroked her head, after which he took the rifle, closed thecartridge box, and started in the direction in which the zebras werepastured. After a half hour the report of a shot reached the camp, andan hour later the young hunter returned with the good news that he hadkilled a young zebra and that the locality was full of game; that hesaw from a height besides zebras, a numerous herd of ariel antelopes aswell as a group of water-bucks pasturing in the vicinity of the river.
Afterwards he ordered Kali to take a horse, and despatched him for theslaughtered game, while he himself began to inspect carefully thegigantic baobab trunk, walk around it, and knock the rugged bark withthe barrel of his rifle.
"What are you doing?" Nell asked him. He replied:
"Look what a giant! Fifteen men holding each other's hands could notencircle that tree, which perhaps remembers the times of the Pharaohs.But the trunk at the bottom is decayed and hollow. Do you see thatopening? Through it one can easily reach the middle. We can therearrange a room in which we all can live. This occurred to me when I sawMea among the branches, and afterwards when I stalked the zebra I wascontinually thinking of it."
"Why, we are to escape to Abyssinia."
"Yes. Nevertheless it is necessary to recuperate, and I told youyesterday that I had decided to remain here a week, or even two. You donot want to leave your elephant, and I fear for you during the rainyseason, which has already commenced and during which fever is certain.To-day the weather is fine; you see, however, that the clouds aregathering thicker and thicker and who knows whether it will not pourbefore night? The tent will not protect you sufficiently and in thebaobab tree if it is not rotten to the top, we can laugh at thegreatest downpour. It will be also safer in it than in the tent for ifin the evening we protect this opening with thorns and make a littlewindow to afford us light, then as many lions as want to may roar andhover around. The spring rainy season does not last longer than a monthand I am more and more inclined to think that it will be necessary towait through it. And if so, it is better here than elsewhere, andbetter still in that gigantic tree than under the tent."
Nell always agreed to everything that Stas wanted; so she agreed now;the more so, as the thought of remaining near the elephant and dwellingin a baobab tree pleased her immensely. She began now to think of howshe would arrange the rooms, how she would furnish them, and how theywould invite each other to "five o'clocks" and dinners. In the end theyboth were amused greatly and Nell wanted at once to inspect her newdwelling, but Stas, who with each day acquired more experience andprudence, restrained her from too sudden housekeeping.
"Before we li
ve there," he said, "it is first necessary to bid thepresent tenants to move out, if any such are found there."
Saying this, he ordered Mea to throw into the interior of the baobabtree a few lighted boughs, which smoked profusely because the brancheswere fresh.
In fact, it appeared that he did well as the gigantic tree was occupiedby housekeepers upon whose hospitality no reliance could be placed.
VI
There were two apertures in the tree, one large, about a half a yardfrom the ground; the other smaller, and about as high as the firststory of a city residence. Mea had scarcely thrown the lighted, smokingbranches into the lower one when immediately out of the upper one bigbats began to fly; squeaking and blinded by the luster of the sun, theyflew aimlessly about the tree. But after a while from the lower openingthere stole out, like