“Kali, did you see?”
“Yes, sir, Kali has seen; those are water-elephants,”[[42]] answered the young negro calmly.
“Water-elephants?”
“This is not the first time Kali has seen them!”
“And they live in the water?”
“In the night they go into the jungle and graze; in the daytime they live in the lake, just like the riboks.[[43]] They do not go out until after sunset.”
For some time Stasch could not recover from his surprise, and had he not been in a hurry to continue the journey he would have held back the caravan till the evening, so as to have a better opportunity of observing these peculiar beasts. But it also occurred to him that the elephants might emerge on the opposite side of the lake, and even if they were to come out of the water at any nearer place, it would be difficult to see them well in the dark.
So he gave the command to depart, but on the way he said to Nell:
“Nell, we have seen something which no European has ever seen before. And do you know what I think? That if we are lucky enough to reach the ocean no one will believe me when I tell them that there are water-elephants in Africa.”
“And if you had caught one of them and had taken it along with you to the ocean?” said Nell, who, as usual, felt satisfied that Stasch could do anything.