erstood the figurative dialogue; "dat be da goodee
plan. Dese stork go back Calcutt--surely dey go back. Dey carry letter
to Feringhee Sahibs--Sahibs dey know we here in prison--dey come d'liva
we vey dey affer get de letter--ha! ha! ha!" Then _delivering_ himself
of a series of shrill ejaculations, the Hindoo sprang up from the stone
upon which he had been sitting, and danced around the hut, as if he had
suddenly taken leave of his senses!

However imperfectly spoken, the words of Ossaroo had disclosed the whole
plan, as conceived by the plant-hunter himself.

It had vaguely defined itself in Karl's mind, on first seeing the storks
above him in the air; but when the lustre of metal flashed before his
eyes, and he perceived that yellow band encircling the shank of the
bird, the scheme became more definite and plausible.

When at length the storks were taken captive, and Karl deciphered the
inscription--by which they were identified as old acquaintances of the
R.B.G.--he no longer doubted that Providence was in the plot; and that
these winged messengers had been sent, as it were, from Heaven itself,
to deliver him and his companions from that prison in which they had so
long been pining.

CHAPTER SIXTY TWO.

CONCLUSION.

The deliverance came at length; though it was not immediate. Several
months more, of that lonely and monotonous life, were our adventurers
called upon to endure.

They had to wait for the return of the rainy season; when the rivers
that traverse the great plains of Hindostan became brimful of flood--
bearing upon their turbid bosoms that luxuriance, not of life, but of
death, which attracts the crane and the stork once more to seek
subsistence upon their banks. Then the great adjutant returns from his
summer tour to the north--winging his way southward over the lofty
summits of Imaus. Then, too, did Karl and his comrades believe that
_their adjutants_ would be guided by a like instinct, and go back to the
R.B.G.--the Royal Botanic Garden of Calcutta.

Karl felt confident of their doing so, as certain almost as if he had
stood on the banks of the sacred stream in the R.B.G. itself, and saw
them descending from their aerial flight and alighting within the
enclosure. This confidence arose from the remembrance of his having
heard--while sojourning with the Curator--that such had been their habit
for many years; and that the time, both of their departure and arrival,
was so periodically r