Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/381

 Rh "Why, I am big now," answered Nell, who was always anxious to make it appear that she was not a little child, "so I will return alone. We can see the camp perfectly from here, and the smoke also."

"I am afraid that you may stray."

"I won't stray. In a high jungle we might stray, but here, see how low the grass is!"

"Still, something may happen to you."

"You yourself said that lions and panthers do not hunt in the daytime. Besides, you hear how the King is trumpeting from longing after us. What lion would dare to hunt there where the sound of the King reaches?"

And she began to importune:

"Stas, dear, I will go alone, like a grown-up."

Stas hesitated for a while but finally assented. The camp and smoke really could be seen. The King, who longed for Nell, trumpeted every little while. In the low grass there was no danger of going astray, and as to lions, panthers, and hyenas, there plainly could be no talk of them as these animals seek prey during the night. The boy after all knew that nothing would afford the little maid greater pleasure than if he acted as though he did not regard her as a little child.

"Very well," he said, "go alone, but go directly, and do not tarry on the way."

"And may I pluck just those flowers?" she asked, pointing at a cusso bush, covered with an immense number of rosy flowers.

"You may."

Saying this, he turned her about, pointed out to her once more for greater certainty the clump of trees from which the smoke of the camp issued and from which resounded the King's trumpeting, after which he plunged into the high jungle growing on the brink of the ravine.