Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/187

 Rh about them any more. But they were recommended to me by my friend, the Greek Kaliopuli; for that reason I would not want them to perish."

"And this will surely happen."

"Then what is to be done?"

"Instead of leaving them in desolate Fashoda, send them to Smain together with those men who brought them to Omdurmân. Smain went to the mountains, to a dry and high region where the fever does not kill the people as on the river."

"How will they find Smain?"

"By the trail of fire. He will set fire to the jungle, first, in order to drive the game to the rocky ravines in which it will be easy to surround and slaughter it, and then in order to scare out of the thickets the heathens, who hid in them before pursuit. Smain will not be hard to find—"

"Will they, however, overtake him?"

"He will at times pass a week in one locality to cure meat. Even though he rode away two or three days ago they surely will overtake him."

"But why should they chase after him? He will return to Fashoda anyway."

"No. If the slave-hunt is successful, he will take the slaves to the cities to sell them—"

"What is to be done?"

"Remember that both of us must leave Fashoda. The children, even though the fever does not kill them, will die of starvation."

"By the prophet! That is true."

And there really remained nothing else to do but to despatch the children upon a new wandering life. Hatim, who appeared to be a very good man, was only troubled about this: whether Gebhr, with whose cruel disposition