At this Nell raised her finger and declared with great positiveness:
"When I tell the King, he will carry everything."
"How will he carry the cartridges, if very few of them remain?"
"As to that, he will defend us."
"But he won't fire from his trunk as I do from the rifle."
"Then we can eat figs and big gourds which grow on the trees, and Kali will catch fish."
"That is, as long as we stay near the river. We still have to pass the rainy season here, as these continual downpours would surely prostrate you with the fever. Remember, however, that later we shall start upon a further journey and we might chance upon a desert."
"Such as Sahara?" Nell asked in alarm.
"No; one where there are neither rivers, nor fruit-trees, and only low acacias and mimosas grow. There one can live only upon what is secured by hunting. The King will find grass there and I antelopes, but if I do not have anything to shoot them with, then the King will not catch them."
And Stas, in reality, had something to worry about, as by that time, when the elephant was already tamed and had become friendly it was impossible to abandon him and doom him to death by starvation; and to liberate him meant the loss of a greater portion of the ammunition and exposing themselves to unavoidable destruction.