Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/224

 216 "Did he run away?"

And his heart was oppressed by the disagreeable feeling which human ingratitude always arouses. Why! he had interceded for this Kali and defended him when Gebhr vented his rage upon him for whole days, and afterwards he had saved the slave's life. Nell was always kind to him and had wept over his unhappy lot, and both treated him in the best possible manner. Now he ran away! He himself had said that he did not know in which direction the Wahima settlements were situated, and though he would be unable to find them, he nevertheless ran away. Stas again recollected those "African Travels" in Port Said, and the narratives of travelers about the stupidity of negroes, who, throwing away packages, run away although in their escape they are threatened by inevitable death. In fact, Kali, having as his only weapon Gebhr's Sudânese sword, must die of starvation, or if he did not fall again into the captivity of the dervishes would become the prey of wild animals.

Ah! Ingrate and fool!

Stas then began to meditate over this;—how far more difficult and vexatious the journey without Kali would be for them, and how much heavier the work. To water the horses and fetter them for the night, to pitch the tent, build zarebas, watch during the journey that none of the supplies and packets with things were lost, to flay and dress the slain animals, all this for want of the young negro was to fall upon him and he admitted in his soul that as to some of these employments, flaying the hides of animals, for instance, he did not have the slightest knowledge.

"Ha! it will be hard," he said, "but necessary."

In the meantime the sun emerged from beyond the horizon and, as usually happens in the tropics, in a