d her hair still unkempt.

"And Saba?" she asked.

"He has not come yet."

The lips of the little girl at once began to quiver.

"He may yet return," said Stas. "You remember that on the desert
sometimes he was not seen for two days, and afterwards he always
overtook us."

"You said that you would go and search for him."

"I cannot."

"Why, Stas?"

"I cannot leave you in the ravine alone with Mea."

"And Kali?"

"Kali is not here."

Stas was silent, not knowing whether to tell her the whole truth; but
as the matter could not be concealed he thought it best to divulge it
at once.

"Kali took Gebhr's sword," he said, "and in the night went away; I do
not know where. Who knows whether he has not run away? The negroes
often do that, even to their own destruction. I am sorry for him--But
he may understand that he has acted like a fool and--"

Further words were interrupted by Saba's joyful barking which filled
the whole ravine. Nell threw the comb on the ground and wanted to rush
out to meet him. She was prevented, however, by the thorns of the
zareba.

Stas, with the greatest haste, began to scatter them about, but before
he had opened a passage Saba appeared and after him Kali, as shiny and
wet from the dew as if after the greatest rain.

Immense joy possessed both children, and when Kali, out of breath from
fatigue, came inside the enclosure, Nell flung her white hands around
his black neck and hugged him with all her strength.

And he said:

"Kali did not want to see the 'bibi' cry, so Kali found the dog."

"Good boy, Kali!" answered Stas, slapping him on the shoulders. "Did
you not fear in the night that you would meet a lion or a panther?"

"Kali feared, but Kali went," answered the boy.

These words gained still more the hearts of the children. Stas, at
Nell's request, took out from one of the small pieces of luggage a
string of glass beads with which they had been provided by the Greek,
Kaliopuli, on their departure from Omdurman; with it he decorated
Kali's splendid throat; while the latter, overjoyed with the gift,
glanced at once with pride at Mea and said:

"Mea has no beads and Kali has, for Kali is 'the great world.'"

In this manner was the devotion of the black boy rewarded. On the other
hand Saba received a sharp rebuke, from which, for the second time in
Nell's service, he learned that he was perfectly horrid, and that if he
once more did anything like that he would be led by a