ds of antelopes. After three
months of travel the men were entitled to a long rest, so Captain
Glenn, discovering a small lake of wholesome brown water, ordered tents
to be pitched near it and announced a ten days' stop.

During the stop the white men were occupied with hunting and arranging
their geographical and scientific notes, and the negroes devoted
themselves to idleness, which is always so sweet to them. Now it
happened one day that Doctor Clary, shortly after he arose, when
approaching the shore, observed between ten and twenty natives of
Zanzibar, belonging to the caravan, gazing with upturned faces at the
top of a high tree and repeating in a circle:

"Ndege? Akuna ndege? Ndege?" (A bird? Not a bird? A bird?)

The doctor was short-sighted, so he sent to his tent for a field-glass;
afterwards he looked through it at the object pointed out by the
negroes and great astonishment was reflected upon his countenance.

"Ask the captain to come here," he said.

Before the negroes reached him the captain appeared in front of the
tent, for he was starting on an antelope-hunt.

"Look, Glenn," the doctor said, pointing with his hand upwards.

The captain, in turn, turned his face upwards, shaded his eyes with his
hand, and was astonished no less than the doctor.

"A kite," he exclaimed.

"Yes, but the negroes do not fly kites. So where did it come from?"

"Perhaps some kind of white settlement is located in the vicinity or
some kind of mission."

"For three days the wind has blown from the west, or from a region
unknown and in all probability as uninhabited as this jungle. You know
that here there are no settlements or missions."

"This is really curious."

"We had better get that kite."

"It is necessary. Perhaps we may ascertain where it came from."

The captain gave the order. The tree was a few tens of yards high, but
the negroes climbed at once to the top, removed carefully the
imprisoned kite, and handed it to the doctor who, glancing at it, said:

"There is some kind of inscription on it. We'll see." And blinking with
his eyes he began to read.

Suddenly his face changed, his hands trembled.

"Glenn," he said, "take this, read it, and assure me that I did not get
a sunstroke and that I am in my sound mind."

The captain took the bamboo frame to which a sheet was fastened and
read as follows:

"Nelly Rawlinson and Stanislas Tarkowski, sent from Khartum to Fashoda
and conducted from Fashoda