as, after making the mine, inserted it in the deepest fissure, after
which he plastered it wholly with clay, leaving only a small opening
through which hung a fuse twisted of dry palm fiber and rubbed with
fine powder. The decisive moment finally arrived. Stas personally lit
the powdered rope, after which he ran as far as his legs could carry
him to the tree in which previously he had fastened all the others.
Nell was afraid that the King might be frightened too much, but the boy
calmed her first with the statement that he had selected a day on which
the morning was accompanied by a thunderstorm, and then with the
assurance that wild elephants often hear the peal of thunder when the
heavenly elements are unfettered over the jungle.

They sat, however, with palpitating hearts, counting minute after
minute. A terrific roar so agitated the atmosphere that the sturdy
baobab tree shook from top to bottom and remnants of the unscraped
decayed wood poured upon their heads. Stas, at that moment, jumped out
of the tree and, avoiding the bends of the ravine, ran to the
passageway.

The results of the explosion appeared extraordinary. One half of the
lime rock was reduced to minute fragments; the other half had burst
into about a score of greater or smaller pieces, which the force of the
explosion scattered to quite a distance.

The elephant was free.

The overjoyed boy now rushed to the edge of the ravine, where he found
Nell with Mea and Kali. The King was startled a little and, retreating
to the very brink of the ravine, stood with uplifted trunk, gazing in
the direction from which came the sound of such unusual thunder. But
when Nell began to call to him, when she came to him through the
passageway, already opened, he became entirely quiet. More startled
than the King were the horses, of which two dashed into the jungle, and
it was not until sunset that Kali caught them.

That very same day Nell led the King "out into the world." The colossus
followed her obediently, like a little puppy, and afterwards bathed in
the river, and alone secured his supper in this singular manner:
bracing his head against a big sycamore tree, he broke it like a feeble
reed and afterwards carefully nibbled the fruit and the leaves.

Towards evening he returned, however, to the tree, and shoving, every
little while, his enormous nose through an opening, sought for Nell so
zealously and persistently that Stas finally was compelled to give his
t