The deliverance came at length; though it was not immediate. Several
months more, of that lonely and monotonous life, were our adventurers
called upon to endure.
They had to wait for the return of the rainy season; when the rivers
that traverse the great plains of Hindostan became brimful of flood--
bearing upon their turbid bosoms that luxuriance, not of life, but of
death, which attracts the crane and the stork once more to seek
subsistence upon their banks. Then the great adjutant returns from his
summer tour to the north--winging his way southward over the lofty
summits of Imaus. Then, too, did Karl and his comrades believe that
_their adjutants_ would be guided by a like instinct, and go back to the
R.B.G.--the Royal Botanic Garden of Calcutta.
Karl felt confident of their doing so, as certain almost as if he had
stood on the banks of the sacred stream in the R.B.G. itself, and saw
them descending from their aerial flight and alighting within the
enclosure. This confidence arose from the remembrance of his having
heard--while sojourning with the Curator--that such had been their habit
for many years; and that the time, both of their departure and arrival,
was so periodically regular, that there was not an employe of the place
who could not tell it to a day!
Fortunately, Karl remembered the time, though not the exact day. He
knew the week, however, in which his guests might be expected to take
their departure; and this was enough for his purpose.
During their stay in the valley the birds had been cared for, as if they
had been sacred to some deity, adored by those who held them in charge.
Fish and flesh had they a plenty--with Ossaroo as their provider. Food
and drink, whenever they stood in need of either; freedom from
annoyance, and protection from enemies of every kind--even from Fritz,
who had long since ceased to be their enemy. Nothing had been wanting
to their comfort; everything had been granted--everything but their
liberty.
This, too, was at length restored to them.
On a fair morning--such as a bird might have chosen for its highest
flight--both were set free to go whithersoever they listed.
The only obstruction to their flight was a pair of small skin sacks, one
attached to the neck of each, and prudently placed beyond the reach of
its mandibles. Both were furnished with this curiously-contrived bag;
for Karl--as the spare leaves of his memorandum-book enabled him to do--
had determined that each should be entrusted with a letter and lest one
should go astray, he had sent his _despatch in duplicate_.
For a time the birds seemed reluctant to leave those kind companions--
who had so long fed and cherished them; but the instinct that urged them
to seek the sunny plains of the South at length prevailed; and, giving a
_scream_ of adieu--reciprocated by the encouraging shouts of those they
were leaving behind, and a prolonged baying from the throat of the
boar-hound Fritz--they soared aloft into the air; and in slow, solemn
flight ascended the cliff--soon to disappear behind the crest of the
encircling ridge.
Ten days after, on that same cliff stood a score of men--a glad sight to
Karl, Caspar, and Ossaroo. Even Fritz barked with joy as he beheld
them!
Against the blue background of the sky, it could be perceived that these
men carried coils of rope, pieces of wood, and other implements that
might be required for scaling a cliff.
Our adventurers now knew, that, one or other, or both copies of their
duplicate despatch, must have reached the destination for which they had
designed it.
And the same destination was soon after reached by themselves. By the
help of their rescuers, and the long rope-ladders which they let down,
all three succeeded in _climbing the cliff_--Fritz making the ascent
upon the shoulders of the shikaree!
All three, amidst a company of delighted deliverers--with Fritz
following at their heels--once more descended the southern slope of the
Himalayas; once more stood upon the banks of the sacred Ganges; once
more entered within the hospitable gates of the R.B.G.--there to renew
their acquaintance, not only with hospitable friends, but with those
winged messengers, by whose instrumentality they had been delivered from
their living tomb, and once more restored to society and the world!