d he did not understand why
it should be so. At times he reproached himself that he had not guarded
her enough, that he had not been sufficiently kind to her, and at such
moments such sorrow seized his heart that he wanted to gnaw his own
fingers. Clearly there was too much of woe.

And Nell now slept almost continuously and it may be that this kept her
alive. Stas woke her a few times a day to give her nourishment. Then,
as often as it did not rain, she begged him to carry her into the open
air for now she could not stand on her own feet. It happened, moreover,
that she fell asleep in his arms. She knew now that she was very sick
and might at any moment die. In moments of greater animation she spoke
of this to Stas, and always with tears, for she feared death.

Once she said: "I shall not now return to papa, but tell him that I was
very, very sorry--and beg him to come to me."

"You will return," Stas answered.

And he could not say anything more as he wanted to wail.

And Nell continued in a scarcely audible, dreamy voice:

"And papa will come and you will come sometime, will you not?"

At this thought a smile brightened the little wan face, but after a
while she said in a still lower tone:

"But I am so sorry!"

Saying this she rested her little head upon his shoulder and began to
weep. He mastered his pain, pressed her to his bosom, and replied with
animation:

"Nell, I will not return without you--and I do not at all know what I
would do in this world without you."

Silence followed, during which Nell again fell asleep.

Stas carried her to the tree, but he had barely gone outside when from
the summit of the promontory Kali came running and waving his hands; he
began to shout, with an agitated and frightened face:

"Great master! Great master!"

"What do you want?" Stas asked.

And the negro, stretching out his hand and pointing to the south, said:

"Smoke!"

Stas shaded his eyes with his palm and straining his sight in the
direction indicated really saw in the ruddy luster of the sun, which
now stood low, a streak of smoke rising far in the jungle, amid the top
of two still more distant hills which were quite high.

Kali trembled all over, for he well remembered his horrible slavery
with the dervishes; he was certain that this was their camping place.
To Stas, also, it seemed that this could not be any one else than
Smain, and at first he too became terribly frightened. Only this was
wanting