to the horses, for the most ferocious beasts of
prey in the jungle, the lion, the panther, and the leopard, prefer to
have nothing to do with an elephant and not to approach too near his
tusks and trunk.

Nevertheless, when the little maid continued to run around, more and
more hurriedly, Stas followed her and asked:

"Say, little moth! Why are you flying like that about the fire?"

He asked still jestingly, but really was uneasy and his uneasiness
increased when Nell answered:

"I don't know. I can't sit down in any place."

"What is the matter with you?"

"I feel so strangely--"

And then suddenly she rested her head on his bosom and as though
confessing a fault, exclaimed in a meek voice, broken by sobs:

"Stas, perhaps I am sick--"

"Nell!"

Then he placed his palm upon her forehead which was dry and icy. So he
took her in his arms and carried her to the camp-fire.

"Are you cold?" he asked on the way.

"Cold and hot, but more cold--"

In fact her little teeth chattered and chills continually shook her
body. Stas now did not have the slightest doubt that she had a fever.

He at once ordered Mea to conduct her to the tree, undress her and
place her on the ground, and afterwards to cover her with whatever she
could find, for he had seen in Khartum and Fashoda that fever-stricken
people were covered with sheeps' hide in order to perspire freely. He
determined to sit at Nell's side the whole night and give her hot water
with honey to drink. But she in the beginning did not want to drink. By
the light of the little lamp hung in the interior of the tree he
observed her glittering eyes. After a while she began to complain of
the heat and at the same time shook under the saddle-cloth and plaids.
Her hands and forehead continued cold, but had Stas known anything
about febrile disorders, he would have seen by her extraordinary
restlessness that she must have a terrible fever. With fear he observed
that when Mea entered with hot water the little girl gazed at her as
though with a certain amazement and even fear and did not seem to
recognize her. With him she spoke consciously. She said to him that she
could not lie down and begged him to permit her to rise and run about;
then again she asked whether he was not angry at her because she was
sick, and when he assured her that he was not, her eyelashes were
suffused with the tears which surged to her eyes, and she assured him
that on the morrow she would be entir