d to go
any farther. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there was a war between the
kings of Uganda and Unyoro. Linde rendered important services to the
king of Uganda, who in exchange for them presented him with over two
hundred bodyguards. This greatly facilitated the journey and the visit
to the Karamojo Mountains, but afterwards smallpox appeared in the
ranks, after that the dreadful sleeping sickness, and finally the wreck
of the caravan.

Linde possessed considerable supplies of various kinds of preserved
food, but from fear of the scurvy he hunted every day for fresh meat.
He was an excellent shot but not a sufficiently careful sportsman, and
it happened that when a few days before he thoughtlessly drew near a
wild boar which had fallen from his shot, the beast started up and tore
his legs frightfully, and afterwards trampled upon his loins. This
happened near the camp and in the sight of Nasibu, who, tearing his
shirt and making bandages of it, was able to check the flow of blood
and lead the wounded man to the tent. In the foot, however, coagulum
was formed from the internal flow of blood and gangrene threatened the
patient.

Stas insisted upon dressing his wounds and announced that he would come
daily, or, so as not to leave Nell only under the care of the two
blacks, he proposed to convey him to "Cracow," on saddle-cloth,
stretched between two horses.

Linde agreed to the dressing of the wounds, but would not agree to the
removal.

"I know," he said, pointing at the negroes, "that those men must die,
but until they die, I cannot doom them to be torn to pieces alive by
hyenas, which during the night-time are held back by the fire."

And he began to repeat feverishly:

"I cannot! I cannot! I cannot!"

But he became calm immediately, and continued in a strange voice:

"Come here to-morrow morning--I have a request to make of you, and if
you can perform it, God may lead you out of this African gulf, and
grant me an easy death. I wished to postpone this request until
to-morrow, but as I may be unconscious to-morrow I make it to-day. Take
water in some utensil, stop before each one of those poor sleeping
fellows, sprinkle water over him, and say these words: 'I baptize thee,
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost!'"

Here emotion checked his speech and he became silent.

"I reproach myself," he said after a while, "that I did not take leave
in that manner of those who died of smal