Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/243

Rh to remain with his companion instead of running away wherever his eyes should lead him.

Stas left both horses near the rock and went to the brink of the ravine to ascertain whether a farther journey by way of it was feasible. And he saw that owing to the great declivity the water had flowed away and the bottom was almost dry.

After a while his attention was attracted to a white object entangled in the climbing plants in the recess of the opposite rocky wall. It appeared that it was the top of the tent which the wind had carried as far as that and driven into the thicket so that the water could not carry it away. The tent, at any rate, assured Nell of a better protection than a hut hurriedly constructed of boughs; so its recovery greatly delighted Stas.

But his joy increased still more when from a lower recess partly hidden by lianas Saba sprang out, holding in his teeth some kind of animal whose head and tail hung from his jaws. The powerful dog, in the twinkling of an eye, reached the top, and laid at Stas' feet a striped hyena with broken back and gnawed foot. After which he began to wag his tail and bark joyfully as if he wanted to say:

"I admit that I behaved like a coward before the lions, but to tell the truth, you sat perched on the tree like guinea-fowls. Look, however! I did not waste the night altogether."

And he was so proud of himself that Stas was barely able to induce him to leave the bad-smelling animal on the spot and not to carry it as a gift to Nell.

When they both returned a good fire was burning in the camp; water was bubbling in the utensils in which boiled durra grain, two guinea-fowls, and smoked strips of venison. Nell was already attired in a dry dress but