Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/262

 254 "Very well! very well! But if the elephants appear, you won't cry, oh no! Your eyes will only perspire as they did twice before."

And he began to tease her:

"I do not cry, only my eyes perspire—"

Nell, however, seeing his happy mien, conjectured that no immediate danger threatened them.

"When he gets tame," she said, "my eyes will not perspire, though ten lions should roar."

"Why?"

"For he will defend us."

Stas quieted Saba, who would not stop replying to the elephant; after which he deliberated somewhat and spoke thus:

"You did not think of one thing, Nell. Of course, we will not stay here for ages but will proceed farther; I do not say at once. On the contrary, the place is good and healthy; I have decided to stop here—a week, perhaps,—perhaps two, for you, and all of us as well, are entitled to a rest. Well, very good! As long as we stay here we will feed the elephant, though that will be a big task for us all. But he is locked up and we cannot take him with us. Well then, what later? We shall go and he will remain here and again will endure the pangs of hunger 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 not knowing what reply to make to these just remarks, but after a while she raised her head and, brushing aside the tufts of hair which fell over her 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 the ravine."

"I?"