“We must certainty take down the kite.”
“Yes. Perhaps then we shall find out where it came from.”
The captain gave a short order. The tree was several feet high, but in a moment the negroes had reached the top, carefully unfastened the kite, taken it down, and handed it to the doctor, who examined it quickly and said:
“There’s writing on it—let us look!”
And in order to see better he half closed his eyes and began to read:
Suddenly his face changed and his hand trembled.
“Glen,” he said, “take that; read it through, and convince me that I have not had a sun-stroke, and that I am still in my right senses!”
The captain took the bamboo frame to which the sheet of paper was attached and read the following:
“Nell Rawlison and Stanislaus Tarkowski, who were sent from Khartum to Fashoda, and were transported from Fashoda to the east of the Nile, have freed themselves from the hands of the Dervishes. After a journey of many months they have arrived at a lake which lies to the south of Abyssinia. They are going to the ocean. They beg for help.”
And on the other side of the sheet was found the following postscript: