trees above the river, looking for palms bearing wild dates and
so-called "Job's tears," from which necklaces are made. A few of them
returned to the camp before sunset, carrying some square objects which
Stas recognized as his own kites.

One of these kites bore the number 7, which was evidence that it was
sent out from Mount Linde, as the children flew from that place a few
score. Stas was hugely overjoyed at this sight and it gave him renewed
courage.

"I did not expect," he said to Nell, "that kites could fly such a
distance. I was certain that they would remain on the summits of
Karamojo and I only let them fly prepared for any accident. But now I
see that the wind can carry them where it wants to and I have a hope
that those which we sent from the mountains surrounding Bassa-Narok,
and now on the road, will fly as far as the ocean."

"They surely will," Nell answered.

"God grant," the boy acquiesced, thinking of the dangers and hardships
of the further journey.

The caravan started from the river on the third day, taking with them a
great supply of water in leather bags. Before nightfall they again
entered upon a region grilled by the sun, in which not even acacias
grew, and the ground in some places was as bare as a threshing-floor.
Sometimes they met passion-flowers with trunks imbedded in the ground
and resembling monstrous pumpkins two yards in diameter. In these huge
globes there shot out lianas as thin as string, which, creeping over
the ground, covered immense distances, forming a thicket so
impenetrable that it would be difficult even for mice to penetrate it.
But notwithstanding the beautiful color of these plants, resembling the
European acanthus, there were so many thorns in them that neither the
King nor the horses could find any nourishment in them. Only the donkey
nibbled them cautiously.

Sometimes in the course of several English miles they did not see
anything except coarse, short grass and low plants, like immortelles,
which crumbled upon being touched. After a night's bivouac, during the
whole of the following day a living fire descended from heaven. The air
quivered as on the Libyan Desert. In the sky there was not even a
cloudlet. The earth was so flooded with light that everything appeared
white, and not a sound, not even the buzz of insects, interrupted this
deadly stillness surfeited with an ill-omened luster.

The men were dripping with sweat. At times they deposited their packs