l go away up in the air and with a
powerful wind will fly the Lord knows where--"

Here he suddenly struck his forehead.

"I have an idea."

"What is it?"

"You shall see. As soon as I figure it out better, I will tell you. Now
that elephant of yours is making such a racket that one cannot even
talk."

Indeed, the elephant, from longing for Nell, and perhaps for both
children, trumpeted so that the whole ravine shook, together with the
adjacent trees.

"We must show ourselves to him," Nell said. "That will quiet him."

And they strolled to the ravine. But Stas, entirely absorbed in his
thoughts, began in an undertone to say:

"'Nelly Rawlinson and Stanislas Tarkowski of Port Said, having escaped
from the dervishes in Fashoda, are at--'"

And stopping abruptly, he asked:

"How to designate the place?"

"What, Stas?"

"Nothing, nothing. I already know,--'are about a month's journey west
of the Blue Nile and beg for immediate aid.' When the wind blows to the
north or to the west I will send twenty, fifty, a hundred of such kites
and you, Nell, shall help me to paste them."

"Kites?"

"Yes, and I tell you that they can be of greater service to us than ten
elephants."

In the meantime they reached the brink. And now began the shuffling of
the elephant's feet, the nodding, the movements of the ears, the
gurgling, and again the mournful trumpeting when Nell attempted to
retire even for a moment. In the end the little maid began to explain
to the "dear elephant" that she could not be with him all the time,
for, of course, she had to sleep, eat, work, and keep house in
"Cracow." But he became quiet only when she shoved down to him with a
pitchfork provisions prepared by Kali; at night he again began to
trumpet.

The children that same evening named him "The King," as Nell was sure
that before he got caught in the ravine he undoubtedly was the king of
all the elephants in Africa.

VIII

During the few days following Nell passed all the moments during which
the rain did not fall with the King, who did not oppose her departure,
having understood that the little maiden would return a few times
daily. Kali, who as a rule feared elephants, gazed at this one with
amazement but in the end came to the conclusion that the mighty, "Good
Mzimu" had bewitched the giant, so he began to visit him also.

The King was well disposed in his behavior towards Kali as well as
towards Mea, but Nell alone could do with h