it--water has no smell. He is not pulling me to
antelopes, for he did not want to eat during the evening. Nor to beasts
of prey. Well, what is it?"

And suddenly his heart began to beat in his bosom yet more strongly.

"Perhaps the wind brought him the odor of men?--Perhaps--in the
distance there is some negro village?--Perhaps one of the kites has
flown as far--Oh, merciful Christ! Oh, Christ!--"

And under the influence of a gleam of hope he regained his strength and
began to run towards the camp, notwithstanding the obstinacy of the
dog, who incessantly barred his way. In the camp Nell's form loomed
white before him and her weak voice reached him: after a while he
stumbled over Kali lying on the ground, but he paid no heed to
anything. Reaching the pack in which the sky-rockets were, he tore it
open and drew out one of them. With trembling hands he tied it to a
bamboo stick, planted it in a crack in the ground, struck a match and
lit the string of the tube hanging at the bottom.

After a while a red snake flew upwards with a sputter and a sizzle.
Stas seized a bamboo pole with both hands in order not to fall and
fixed his eyes on the distance. His pulse and his temples beat like
sledge hammers; his lips moved in fervent prayer. His last breath, and
in it his whole soul, he sent to God.

One minute passed, another, a third, and a fourth. Nothing! Nothing!
The boy's hand dropped, his head bowed to the ground, and immense grief
flooded his tortured breast.

"In vain! In vain!" he whispered. "I will go and sit beside Nell and we
will die together."

At this moment far, far away on the silvery background of the moonlit
night, a fiery ribbon suddenly soared upward and scattered into golden
stars, which fell slowly, like great tears, upon the earth.

"Succor!" Stas shouted.

And immediately these people, who were half-dead a short time before,
dashed pell-mell in a race across tufts of shrubs and grass. After the
first sky-rocket, a second and third appeared. After that the breeze
brought a report as though of tapping, in which it was easy to divine
distant shots. Stas ordered all the Remingtons to be fired, and from
that time the colloquy of rifles was not interrupted at all and became
more and more distinct. The boy, sitting on a horse, which also as
though by a miracle recovered its strength, and keeping Nell before
him, dashed across the plain towards the saving sounds. Beside him
rushed Saba and after him t