On the following day the sun shone down on a strange scene. Stasch walked alongside of the steep cliff, stood still in front of each negro, poured water over each forehead while making the sign of the cross, and at the same time pronounced the sacred words. And they slept—their hands and feet shaking, their heads sunk on their chests or held upright. Though still alive, they resembled corpses. In this manner the sleepers were baptized in the quiet of the morning, in the light of the sun, in the silence of the wilderness. The sky was cloudless, highly arched, gray-blue—as if shrouded in mourning.

Linde was still rational, but became weaker and weaker. After his bandage had been changed he gave Stasch some papers locked up in a tin box, and begged him to be especially careful of them; then he ceased to speak. He could not eat, but he was dreadfully tortured by thirst, and before sunset he became delirious. He called to some children, forbidding them to swim out so far in the lake; at last he began to have convulsions, and afterward sat holding his head in his hands.

On the following day he could not recognize Stasch, and three days later, at noon, he died without regaining consciousness. Stasch truly mourned for him a while, then he and Kali carried the body to a nearby cave, the opening of which they closed with thorns and stones.

Stasch took little Nasibu with him to “Cracow,” and ordered Kali to stay there, to look after the provisions and keep a large fire burning near the sleepers at night. Stasch continually rode back and forth between the two gorges, carrying back to “Cracow” baggage, weapons, and especially the cartridges for the Remington rifles, out of which he took the powder he needed to blast the rock that held King a prisoner. Fortunately Nell’s health improved very much, owing to her daily dose of quinine, and the great variety of food had given her more appetite and increased her strength. Stasch left her very reluctantly, and as he felt that something might happen to her, he forbade her leaving the interior of the tree during his absence, and closed the opening with branches of thorny acacia. On account of the increasing duties which had fallen upon him, he was often obliged to leave her in the care of Mea, Nasibu and Saba, on whom, by the way, he chiefly relied. He preferred to ride several times a day to Linde’s camp for provisions rather than leave the girl too long. This of course meant a great deal of work, but his iron nature was proof against all fatigue. It took ten days before the things were properly sorted; those not especially needed were done up in canvas and the necessary ones were deposited in “Cracow.” The horses were also brought there, as were a large number of Remington rifles; these burdens would now fall to the lot of King.

While this was being done, some of the sleepers sprang up in their last paroxysm, fled wildly into the jungle, and never returned. But there were others who died on the spot, and still others who rushed off blindly, dashing their heads to pieces on the rocks in or near the camp. Kali had to bury them. Two weeks later only one remained, and he soon expired in his sleep from exhaustion.

At last the time had come to blast the rock and release King. He was now so tame that at Stasch’s command he lifted him with his trunk and set him up on his neck. He had also become accustomed to carrying the burdens which Kali put upon his back by means of a bamboo ladder. Nell was afraid that one of the pieces was too heavy for him, but the small load he had on his back seemed no heavier for him than a fly. It was only now that their baggage—increased by the things Linde had left them—would be burdensome for him. At first he showed great restlessness on the approach of Saba, but now he was quite friendly with the dog, and played with him by throwing him down on the ground with his trunk, whereupon Saba pretended to bite him. But sometimes he unexpectedly poured water over the dog, which, of course, the latter considered a very poor joke.

The children were especially pleased that the intelligent beast understood everything that was required of him, and that he not only paid the greatest attention to every command or request, but to every sign given him. Elephants far outstrip all other animals in this respect, and King greatly surpassed Saba, who only wagged his tail at every command and threat from Nell, and then, in the end, did just what he pleased.

For instance, after several weeks King observed that the person to be implicitly obeyed was Stasch, and the person who engaged the attention of every one was Nell. And thus he obeyed Stasch’s commands the most readily, and loved Nell the dearest. He did not care much for Kali and ignored Mea.

After Stasch had prepared the blast, he pushed it into the deepest crack, closed the opening with clay, and only left a tiny hole, out of which hung a fuse of twisted palm threads rubbed with ground powder. At last the decisive moment came. Stasch lighted the powdered thread himself, then ran for his life toward the tree, in which he had previously shut every one. Nell was afraid that King might become greatly alarmed, but the boy calmed her by saying that, in the first place, he had chosen a day when there had been a heavy thunderstorm in the morning, and, secondly, that wild elephants must have heard the peals of thunder more than once when the elementary forces of the heavens had been let loose over the jungle. But nevertheless they sat there with beating hearts, counting the seconds. At last a terrible noise shook the air. The bamboo-tree trembled from top to bottom, and the remains of the mold still left in the tree fell down on their heads. The next moment Stasch sprang out, and avoiding the bends in the gorge, made a straight line for the passage.

The results of the explosion were extraordinary. One-half of the chalk wall had broken into tiny bits, the other into larger and smaller blocks of stone, which the force of the blast had thrown and scattered quite a distance.

The elephant was free.

The happy boy at once ran back up the hill, where he met Nell with Mea and Kali. King had certainly been frightened and had drawn back close to the edge of the ravine, where he stood with upturned trunk, looking toward the direction from which such an unusual clap of thunder had broken out. But as soon as Nell began to call him he stopped moving his ears from fright, and when she ran down to him through the newly opened passage he became perfectly calm. But the horses were more frightened than King, and two of them had fled into the jungle, so that Kali could not find them again until toward sunset. On the same day Nell led King back “into the world.” The colossus followed her obediently, like a small dog. Then he took a bath in the stream, after which he thought of supper; so leaning his head against a large sycamore-tree, he bent it like a weak reed, and devoted all his attention to chewing up the fruit and leaves.

In the evening he returned punctually to the tree, and sticking his great nose into the opening every minute, he searched so carefully and persistently for Nell that at last Stasch was obliged to give him a good smack on his trunk.

Kali was the most pleased with the result of the day, for now he was relieved from the task of collecting food for the giant, which had not been at all an easy matter. While preparing a fire to cook the supper Stasch and Nell heard him singing a new hymn of joy:

“The great man kill people and lions. Yah! Yah! Great man break up rock. Yah! Elephant breaks his own trees, and Kali can idle and eat. Yah! Yah!”

The “massika” or rainy season was nearly over. Of course there were still dark and rainy days, but also some very fine days. Stasch now decided to move over to the mountain, which Linde had told him about, and this plan was carried out soon after King’s release. Nell’s health no longer deterred him, for she was now decidedly better.

Selecting a fine morning, they broke up camp and started for the south. Now they were no longer afraid of being lost, for the boy had found among the many other articles of Linde’s outfit a compass and an excellent telescope, through which far distant places could be plainly seen. Besides Saba, King, and the donkey, five heavily laden horses were taken along. King, in addition to the baggage on his back, carried Nell, who sat on his neck between the enormous ears. She looked as though in a large armchair. Stasch left the peninsula-shaped promontory and the baobab-tree without regret, for the remembrance of Nell’s illness clung to the place. But, on the other hand, the girl looked regretfully at the rocks, the tree, and the waterfall, and said that she would return again when she was “grown up.”

But still sadder was the little Nasibu, who had really loved his former master. Now, as he rode on the donkey at the end of the caravan, he turned back every minute to look at the place where the body of poor Linde was to rest till the Day of Judgment.

The wind blew from the north, and the day was very cool. Consequently they did not need to rest from ten to three, the hours of the greatest heat, and therefore could go much further than caravans usually do in a day. The journey was not long, and a few hours after sunset Stasch perceived the mountain which was to be their destination. In the distance another chain of hills stood out against the sky, but the former was much nearer and stood out by itself like an island in the middle of a jungle sea. When they approached they saw that its precipitous sides were washed by an arm of the same river on the borders of which they had previously lived. Its summit was shaped like a round bowl, and seen from below, seemed to be completely covered by a thick forest. Stasch figured that as the strip of land in which their baobab-tree grew was 700 feet high, and this mountain 800 feet higher, they would be living at an altitude of 1500 feet, and in a climate which could not be much hotter than that of Egypt. The thought gave him courage and made him desire to take possession of this natural fortress as quickly as possible.

They soon found the mountain-pass, which was the only means of reaching the summit, and immediately began to climb the mountain. An hour and a half later they had reached the top. The grove they thought they had seen from below proved to be not only a grove, but a banana-grove. The sight of this greatly pleased them all, including King; but Stasch was especially delighted, for he knew that in all Africa there is no food more strengthening, more healthful, and a better preventive against illness than flour made of dried bananas. And here was a year’s supply.

Hidden in the foliage of these plants were negro huts, some of which had been burned during the invasion, and some destroyed by other means; however, a few remained in fair condition. In the middle stood the largest, which formerly belonged to the chief of the village. It had been tastefully constructed out of clay, with a broad roof forming a sort of veranda around the walls. Here and there in front of the huts lay single bones and also complete human skeletons, white as chalk, for they had been thoroughly cleaned by the ants, of whose invasion Linde had spoken. Many weeks had passed since the invasion of the little insects, but in the hut there was still a strong scent of formic acid, and in the dwellings not a trace could be found of the large black cockroaches—which usually infest the mud huts of the negroes—or spiders, or scorpions, or any other vermin. Everything had been destroyed by the terrible “siafu,” and so one could feel confident that on the entire summit there was not a snake to be found, for even the boas fall victims to these unconquerable warriors.

After Stasch had led Nell and Mea into the chieftain’s hut, he ordered Kali and Nasibu to clear away the human bones. The black boy obeyed by simply throwing them into the stream, and the force of the current carried them along. But during this work they discovered that Linde had made a mistake in telling them that they would not find a single living being on the mountain. The quiet which reigned after the kidnapping of the inhabitants by the Dervishes, and the tempting look of the bananas, had enticed a great many chimpanzees, which had arranged something resembling umbrellas, or small roofs, to protect them from the rain. Stasch did not want to kill them, so he decided to frighten them away by shooting into the air. This caused a general confusion, which increased when Saba’s angry bark was heard, and King, excited by the noise, began to trumpet vociferously. But the monkeys did not have to seek far to find a means of retreat, for they galloped to the edges of the cliff and let themselves down so quickly and with such agility by means of the trees growing alongside of the banks that King was unable to capture a single one with his trunk and tusks.

The sun had gone down, and Kali and Nasibu lighted a fire to cook the evening meal. After Stasch had unpacked the necessary things for the night, he wended his way to the chief’s hut, of which Nell had already taken possession. In the hut it was light and cosy, for Nell did not light the small lamp that had served to illuminate the interior of the baobab-tree, but a large traveling lamp which they had found among Linde’s things. As the day had been so cool, Nell did not feel particularly tired after the journey. She was in a cheerful frame of mind, which increased when Stasch told her that the bones, which had frightened her, had been cleared away.

“How good it is to be here,” she said. “Look, even the ground is covered with asphalt. Here we shall live luxuriously.”

“I shall wait till to-morrow before taking a good look at the whole settlement,” answered he; “but from what I have already seen to-day I conclude that it would be a good place to live in all one’s life.”

“If our papas were here, yes, it would then be all right. But what shall we name this settlement?”

“In geographies this mountain is called Linde Mountain, and this village is named ‘Nell,’ after you.”

“So, then, I shall also be represented in geography,” said she joyfully.

“Certainly; it will perpetuate your name,” answered Stasch with great earnestness.