im whatever she pleased, so
that after a week she ventured even to bring Saba to him. For Stas this
was a great relief as he could with perfect peace leave Nell under the
protection, or, as he expressed it, "under the trunk of the elephant,"
and without any fear he went hunting and even at times took Kali with
him. He was certain now that the noble animal would not desert them
under any circumstances and began to consider how to free him from his
confinement.

And to speak properly, he long ago had discovered a way, but it
required such sacrifices that he wrestled with his thoughts as to
whether he would use it and afterwards postponed doing it from day to
day. As he had no one to speak to about this, he finally decided to
acquaint Nell with his intentions, though he regarded her as a mere
child.

"The rock can be blasted with powder, but for that it is necessary to
spoil a great number of cartridges; that is, to extract the bullets,
pour out the powder, and make one big charge out of it all. Such a
charge I will insert in the deepest fissure which I can find in the
middle; afterwards I will plug it and light a fire. Then the rock will
burst into a few or even a score of pieces and we can lead the King
out."

"But if there is a great explosion, will he not get scared?"

"Let him get scared," answered Stas quickly. "That bothers me the
least. Really, it is not worth while to talk to you seriously."

Nevertheless he continued, or rather thought aloud:

"But if I do not use enough cartridges the rock will not burst and I
shall waste them in vain; if I use a sufficient number, then not many
will remain. And if I should be in want of them before the end of the
journey, death clearly threatens us. For with what will I hunt, with
what will I defend you in case of an attack? You well know, of course,
that if it were not for this rifle and the cartridges we would have
perished long ago, either at Gebhr's hands or from starvation. And it
is very fortunate too that we have horses for without them we could not
have carried all these things and the cartridges."

At this Nell raised her finger and declared with great positiveness:

"When I tell the King, he will carry everything."

"How will he carry the cartridges, if very few of them remain?"

"As to that, he will defend us."

"But he won't fire from his trunk as I do from the rifle."

"Then we can eat figs and big gourds which grow on the trees, and Kali
will catch