They brought from the ravine
the top of the tent, saddled the horses, and put the packages on the
donkey and buried under the roots of the tree those things which they
could not take with them. Drowsiness terribly assailed them at the
work, and Stas, from fear that they should fall asleep, permitted
himself and them to take short naps in turn.

It was perhaps two o'clock when they started on their further journey.
Stas held Nell before him; Kali rode with Mea on the other horse. They
did not ride at once down the ravine, but proceeded between its brink
and the forest. The young jungle had grown considerably during the
rainy night; the soil under it, however, was black and bore traces of
fire. It was easy to surmise that Smain had passed that way with his
division, or that the fire driven from far by a strong gale had swept
over the dry jungle and, finally encountering a damp forest, had passed
on by a not very wide track between it and the ravine. Stas wanted to
ascertain whether traces of Smain's camp or imprints of hoofs could not
be found on this track; and with pleasure he became convinced that
nothing resembling them could be seen. Kali, who was well versed in
such matters, claimed positively that the fire must have been borne by
the wind and that since that time at least a fortnight must have
elapsed.

"This proves," observed Stas, "that Smain, with his Mahdists, is
already the Lord knows where, and in no case shall we fall into his
hands."

Afterwards he and Nell began to gaze curiously at the vegetation, as
thus far they had not ridden so close to a tropical forest. They rode
now along its very edge in order to have the shade over their heads.
The soil here was moist and soft, overgrown with dark-green grass,
moss, and ferns. Here and there lay decomposed trunks, covered as
though with a carpet of most beautiful orchids, with flowers brightly
colored like butterflies and brightly colored cups in the center of the
crown. Wherever the sun reached, the ground was gilded by other odd
orchids, small and yellow, in which two petals protruding on the sides
of a third petal created a resemblance to the head of a little animal
with big ears ending abruptly. In some places the forest was lined with
bushes of wild jasmine draped in garlands with thin, climbing plants,
blooming rose-colored. The shallow hollows and depressions were
overgrown with ferns, compressed into one impenetrable thicket, here
low and expansive, t