for help. For what reason did the boy not
attempt to fly with his little companion to Abyssinia? Why did the
dervishes send them east of the Nile into an unknown region? In what
manner did they succeed in escaping from the hands of the guards? Where
did they hide? By what miracle through long months of journey did they
not die from starvation, or become the prey of wild animals? Why were
they not killed by savages? To all these questions there was no reply.

"I do not understand it, I do not understand it," repeated Doctor
Clary; "this is perhaps a miracle of God."

"Undoubtedly," the captain answered.

After which he added:

"But that boy! For that, of course, was his work."

"And he did not abandon the little one. May the blessings of God flow
upon his head!"

"Stanley--even Stanley would not have survived three days under these
circumstances."

"And nevertheless they live."

"But appeal for help. The stop is ended. We start at once."

And so it happened. On the road both friends scrutinized the document
continually in the conviction that they might obtain from it an inkling
of the direction in which it was necessary for them to go with help.
But directions were lacking. The captain led the caravan in a zigzag
way, hoping that he might chance upon some trace, some extinct fire, or
a tree with a sign carved on the bark. In this manner they advanced for
a few days. Unfortunately they entered afterwards upon a plain,
entirely treeless, covered with high heather and tufts of dried grass.
Uneasiness began to possess both friends. How easy it was to miss each
other in that immeasurable expanse, even with a whole caravan; and how
much more so two children, who, as they imagined, crept like two little
worms somewhere amid heather higher than themselves! Another day
passed. Neither fires at night nor tin boxes, with notes in them,
fastened on the tufts helped them any. The captain and the doctor at
times began to lose hope of ever succeeding in finding the children
and, particularly, of finding them alive.

They sought for them zealously, however, during the following days. The
patrols, which Glenn sent right and left, finally reported to him that
farther on began a desert entirely waterless; so when they accidentally
discovered cool water in a cleft it was necessary to halt in order to
replenish their supplies for the further journey.

The cleft was rather a fissure, a score of yards deep and comparatively
narr