Stasch waited some time, but as the negro did not return, he reluctantly asked himself, “Could he have run away?”
He felt a pain in his heart like that experienced by those who have met with ingratitude. He had befriended Kali and protected him when Gebhr tortured him daily, and had eventually saved his life. Nell always liked him, she wept over his misfortunes, and they both were as kind as could be to him, and yet he had now run away! He often said that he had no idea in which direction the settlements of the Wa-hima lay, and that he could not find his way there—and still he had run away.
Stasch again remembered the description of travels in Africa which he had read in Port Said, the accounts of the travelers, the stupidity of the negroes in throwing away the luggage and deserting—for even if threatened with the punishment of certain death they did so just the same. Evidently Kali, whose only weapon was a Sudanese sword, would succumb to starvation or be recaptured by the Dervishes, unless devoured by wild beasts.
“Oh, the ungrateful wretch! And what a fool!”
Stasch seriously began to think how much more difficult the journey would be for them without Kali and how much more heavily the work would fall on the others. To water the horses and tie them for the night, to put up the tent and the hedge, to guard the luggage and to see that the provisions were not lost, to skin and cut up the slain animals, all duties which Kali had performed, would, through loss of the negro, fall to his share, and he was obliged to confess to himself that he had no definite idea how to do many of these things, as, for instance, skinning animals.
“Well, what else can I do?” said he. “It will have to be done.”
Meanwhile the sun appeared above the horizon, and, as is always the case at the equator, it was daylight in a minute. A little after this the water in the tent, that Mea had prepared for the little lady to wash in, began to splash, by which Stasch knew that Nell had arisen and that she was dressing. Somewhat later she appeared completely dressed, but with her comb in her hands and her hair not arranged.
“What about Saba?” asked she.
“He has not returned yet.”
The corners of the girl’s mouth began to tremble.