Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/205

Rh of food as would have sated two men. But for this he was grateful with his whole heart to his new master and mistress, and immediately after supper he fell on his face before Stas and Nell in token that he desired to remain their slave to the end of his life, and afterwards he also prostrated himself with due humility before Stas' short rifle, understanding that it was the best policy to conciliate so formidable a weapon. After this he announced that during the slumber of the "great master" and the "bibi" he, alternately with Mea, would watch that the fire should not go out, and squatted near it, mumbling quietly something in the nature of a song, in which every little while was repeated the refrain, "Simba kufa, simba kufa," which in the Kiswahili language means, "The lion is killed."

But the "great master" and the little "bibi" were not inclined to sleep. Nell, at Stas' urgent request, barely swallowed a few pieces of guinea-fowl and a few grains of boiled durra. She said that she did not care to eat or sleep but only to drink. A fear seized Stas that she might be suffering from fever, but he soon became satisfied that her hands were cool and even too cold. He persuaded her to enter the tent where he prepared bedding for her, first searching carefully in the grass for scorpions. He himself sat upon a stone with short rifle in hand to defend her from attacks by wild beasts, if the fire did not afford sufficient protection. He was beset by great fatigue and exhaustion. In his soul he repeated to himself, "I killed Gebhr and Chamis; I killed the Bedouins; I killed the lion, and we are free." But it was as if those words were whispered to him by some one else and as if he himself did not comprehend their full meaning. He had not a feeling that they were free, but that something awful at the same time had happened which filled him with uneasiness and