und
the tree and peer at me?"

To Stas in an instant it seemed as if thousands of ants were crawling
over him.

"What are you saying, Nell?" he said. "There is nobody here. That is
Kali walking around the tree."

But she, staring at the dark opening, cried with chattering teeth:

"And the Bedouins too! Why did you kill them?"

Stas clasped her with his arms and pressed her to his bosom.

"You know why! Don't look there! Don't think of that! That happened
long ago!"

"To-day! to-day!"

"No, Nell, long ago."

In fact it was long ago, but it had returned like a wave beaten back
from the shore and again filled with terror the thoughts of the sick
child.

All words of reassurance appeared in vain. Nell's eyes widened more and
more. Her heart palpitated so violently that it seemed that it would
burst at any moment. She began to throw herself about like a fish taken
out of the water, and this continued almost until morning. Only towards
the morning was her strength exhausted and her head dropped upon the
bedding.

"I am weak, weak," she repeated. "Stas, I am flying somewhere down
below."

After which she closed her eyes.

Stas at first became terribly alarmed for he thought that she had died.
But this was only the end of the first paroxysm of the dreadful African
fever, termed deadly, two attacks of which strong and healthy people
can resist, but the third no one thus far had been able to withstand.
Travelers had often related this in Port Said in Mr. Rawlinson's home,
and yet more frequently Catholic missionaries returning to Europe, whom
Pan Tarkowski received hospitably. The second attack comes after a few
days or a fortnight, while if the third does not come within two weeks
it is not fatal as it is reckoned as the first in the recurrence of the
sickness. Stas knew that the only medicine which could break or keep
off the attack was quinine in big doses, but now he did not have an
atom of it.

For the time being, however, seeing that Nell was breathing, he became
somewhat calm and began to pray for her. But in the meantime the sun
leaped from beyond the rocks of the ravine and it was day. The elephant
already demanded his breakfast and from the direction of the overflow
which the river made resounded the cries of aquatic birds. Desiring to
kill a brace of guinea-fowl for broth for Nell, the boy took his gun
and strolled along the river towards a clump of shrubs on which these
birds usually perched for t