“Then what is to be done?”
“Instead of leaving them behind in Fashoda, where there is not a human being, send them to Smain with the people who brought them to Omdurman. Smain has gone off toward the mountains, to a dry and high district, where the fever is not so fatal as here by the river.”
“But how will they find Smain?”
“By following the track of the fires. He will set fire to the jungle, in the first place, so as to drive the game into the ravines, where it can be easily hunted down, and secondly, to frighten away the heathen from the thickets, where they have fled from their pursuers——and so it will not be difficult to find Smain.”
“But will they be able to overtake him?”
“He will sometimes remain a whole week in a place, as he has to smoke meat. But even if he should go on after two or three days, they will certainly overtake him.”
“But why should they run after him? He will return to Fashoda.”
“No; if he should be successful in his hunt for slaves he will take them to the towns to the market——”
“Then what is to be done?”
“Remember that when we two leave Fashoda, if the children remain here they will either succumb to the fever or starve to death.”