The corners of the girl’s mouth began to tremble.
“Perhaps he will come back yet,” said Stasch. “You remember that sometimes in the desert he was missing for two whole days, and yet he always came back to us.”
“You said that you were going to look for him.”
“Because it is impossible for me to leave you alone with Mea.”
He drew back, debating with himself whether or not he ought to tell her the whole truth; but as it would be impossible to hide it, he concluded that it would be better to tell her everything.
“Kali has taken Gebhr’s sword,” he said, “and he went away during the night, no one knows where. Who can tell? He may have run away. Negroes often do this, even to their own detriment. I am sorry—but perhaps he will now see that he has acted foolishly and——”
The next words were drowned by Saba’s joyful bark, which penetrated the gorge. Nell threw down the comb and tried to run toward him, but the thorns in the hedge prevented her.
Stasch at once began to tear down a part of the hedge, but before he had succeeded in even making a passage Saba appeared, and behind him Kali, shining and wet with dew as though soaked through by a very heavy shower.
Both children were overcome with joy, and as soon as Kali, who was so fatigued from his exertions that he could scarcely get his breath, reached the inside of the hedge, Nell threw her little arms around his black neck, hugging him tight.
“Kali does not like to see the Bibi cry,” he said, “so Kali looked for the dog and found him.”
“Good Kali,” cried Stasch, patting him on the shoulder; “and were you not afraid that you would meet a lion or a leopard during the night?”
“Kali afraid, but Kali go,” answered the young man.
These words endeared him still more to the children. At Nell’s request Stasch took from one of the bundles a string of glass beads which the Greek Kaliopuli had given them when they left Omdurman, and placed them around Kali’s neck. He was delighted with the gift, and looking proudly at Mea, said:
“Mea has no glass beads, but Kali has, for Kali is ‘Great World.’ ”
In this way the sacrifice of the black boy was rewarded. Saba, on the contrary, received a severe reprimand, from which he was made to understand for the second time during the period he had been with Nell, that he was very naughty and that if he ever did such a thing again he would be led by a leash like a small dog. He listened to this sermon while wagging his tail with rather a double meaning. But Nell was sure that she saw by the expression of his eyes that he was ashamed, and that he had really blushed for shame, but that could not be perceived, because his cheeks were covered with hair.