Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/331

 Rh King might be frightened too much, but the boy calmed her first with the statement that he had selected a day on which the morning was accompanied by a thunderstorm, and then with the assurance that wild elephants often hear the peal of thunder when the heavenly elements are unfettered over the jungle.

They sat, however, with palpitating hearts, counting minute after minute. A terrific roar so agitated the atmosphere that the sturdy baobab tree shook from top to bottom and remnants of the unscraped decayed wood poured upon their heads. Stas, at that moment, jumped out of the tree and, avoiding the bends of the ravine, ran to the passageway.

The results of the explosion appeared extraordinary. One half of the lime rock was reduced to minute fragments; the other half had burst into about a score of greater or smaller pieces, which the force of the explosion scattered to quite a distance.

The elephant was free.

The overjoyed boy now rushed to the edge of the ravine, where he found Nell with Mea and Kali. The King was startled a little and, retreating to the very brink of the ravine, stood with uplifted trunk, gazing in the direction from which came the sound of such unusual thunder. But when Nell began to call to him, when she came to him through the passageway, already opened, he became entirely quiet. More startled than the King were the horses, of which two dashed into the jungle, and it was not until sunset that Kali caught them.

That very same day Nell led the King "out into the world." The colossus followed her obediently, like a little puppy, and afterwards bathed in the river, and alone secured his supper in this singular manner: bracing his head against a big sycamore tree, he broke it like a