t when Kali carelessly came near him he
grunted menacingly and waved his trunk so that he would have killed the
boy if he had not jumped aside in time.

Kali's eyes were bloodshot, the veins in his neck were inflated, and
his lips cracked the same as the other negroes. About five o'clock he
approached Stas and, in a hollow voice which with difficulty issued out
of his throat, said:

"Great master, Kali can go no further. Let the night come here."

Stas overcame the pain in his jaws and answered with an effort:

"Very well. We will stop. The night will bring relief."
"It will bring death," the young negro whispered.

The men threw the loads off their heads, but as the fever in their
thickened blood already reached the highest degree, on this occasion
they did not immediately lie down on the ground. Their hearts and the
arteries in their temples, hands, and limbs pulsated as if in a moment
they would burst. The skin of their bodies, drying up and shrinking,
began to itch; in their bones they were sensible of an excessive
disquiet and in their entrails and throats a fire. Some walked uneasily
among the packets; others could be seen farther away in ruddy rays of
the setting sun as they strolled one after another among the dried
tufts as though seeking something, and this continued until their
strength was entirely exhausted. Then they fell in turn on the ground
and lay in convulsions. Kali sat, squatting near Stas and Nell,
catching the air with open mouth, and began to repeat entreatingly
between one breath and the other:

"Bwana kubwa, water."

Stas gazed at him with a glassy stare and remained silent.

"Bwana kubwa, water!"

And after a while:

"Kali is dying."

At this, Mea, who for an unknown reason endured thirst the easiest and
suffered the least of all, approached, sat close to him, and, embracing
his neck with her arms, said in her quiet, melodious voice.

"Mea wants to die together with Kali."

A long silence followed.

In the meantime the sun set and night covered the region. The sky
became dark-blue. On its southern side the Cross glistened. Above the
plain a myriad of stars twinkled. The moon came out from under the
earth and began to satiate the darkness with light, and on the west
with the waning and pale twilight extended the zodiacal luminosity. The
air was transformed into a great luminous gulf. The ever-increasing
luster submerged the region. The palanquin, which remained forgotten