ssed by calmly,
they also passed on. Night had already fallen; they nevertheless rode
over half a mile, and halted only in a place where the ravine widened
again into a small amphitheatrical vale, overgrown with dense thorns
and prickly mimosa trees.

"Master," said the young negro, "Kali will make a fire--a big fire."

And taking the broad Sudanese sword, which he had removed from Gebhr's
corpse, he began to cut with it thorns and even little trees. After
building the fire, he continued to cut until he secured a supply which
would suffice for the whole night, after which with Stas he pitched the
tent for Nell, under a steep perpendicular wall of the ravine, and
later they surrounded it with a semi-circular, broad and prickly fence,
or a so-called zareba.

Stas knew from descriptions of African travels that travelers in this
manner safeguarded themselves against the attacks of wild animals. The
horses could not be placed within the fence; so the boy, unsaddling
them and removing the tin utensils and bags, only hobbled them so that
they should not stray too far in seeking grass or water. Mea finally
found water near-by in a stony cavity, forming as it were a little
basin under the opposite rocks. There was so copious a supply that it
sufficed for the horses and the cooking of the guinea-fowls which were
shot that morning by Chamis. In the pack-saddles, which the donkey
bore, they also found about three pots of durra, a few fistfuls of
salt, and a bunch of dried manioc roots.

This sufficed for a bounteous supper. Kali and Mea mainly took
advantage of it. The young negro whom Gebhr had starved in a cruel
manner ate such an amount of food as would have sated two men. But for
this he was grateful with his whole heart to his new master and
mistress, and immediately after supper he fell on his face before Stas
and Nell in token that he desired to remain their slave to the end of
his life, and afterwards he also prostrated himself with due humility
before Stas' short rifle, understanding that it was the best policy to
conciliate so formidable a weapon. After this he announced that during
the slumber of the "great master" and the "bibi" he, alternately with
Mea, would watch that the fire should not go out, and squatted near it,
mumbling quietly something in the nature of a song, in which every
little while was repeated the refrain, "Simba kufa, simba kufa," which
in the Kiswahili language means, "The lion is killed."

But