east from the Nile, escaped from the
dervishes. After long months' travel they arrived at a lake lying south
of Abyssinia. They are going to the ocean. They beg for speedy help."

At the side of the sheet they found the following addition written in
smaller letters:

"This kite, the 54th in order, was flown from the mountains surrounding
a lake unknown to geography. Whoever finds it should notify the
Directory of the Canal at Port Said or Captain Glenn in Mombasa.

Stanislas Tarkowski."

When the captain's voice died away, the two friends gazed at each other
in silence.

"What is this?" Doctor Clary finally asked.

"I do not believe my own eyes!" the captain answered.

"This, of course, is no illusion."

"No."

"It is plainly written, 'Nelly Rawlinson and Stanislas Tarkowski.'"

"Most plainly."

"And they may be somewhere in this region."

"God rescued them, so it is probable."

"Thank Him for that," exclaimed the doctor fervently. "But where shall
we seek them?"

"Is there no more on the kite?"

"There are a few other words but in the place torn by the bough. It is
hard to read them."

Both leaned their heads over the sheet and only after a long time were
they able to decipher:

"The rainy season passed long ago."

"What does that mean?"

"That the boy lost the computation of time."

"And in this manner he endeavored to indicate the date, therefore this
kite may have been sent up not very long ago."

"If that is so, they may not be very far from here."

The feverish, broken conversation lasted for a while, after which both
began to scrutinize the document and discuss every word inscribed upon
it. The thing appeared, however, so improbable that if it were not for
the fact that this occurred in a region in which there were no
Europeans at all--about three hundred and seventy-five miles from the
nearest coast--the doctor and the captain would have assumed that it
was an ill-timed joke, which had been perpetrated by some European
children who had read the newspapers describing the abduction, or by
wards of missions. But it was difficult not to believe their eyes; they
had the kite in hand and the little rubbed inscriptions were plainly in
black before them.

Nevertheless, there were many things which they could not comprehend.
Where did the children get the paper for the kite? If it had been
furnished to them by a caravan, then they would have joined it and
would not have appealed