triumph, and away it went rumbling after them.

The promise of their leader was soon fulfilled. After moving on for
three miles or so, the foot of a hill was reached. The driver knowing
what was before him urged on the oxen, hoping that by pulling together
as they were then doing, he might urge the waggon up without a stop.
For the first two-thirds of the way they did very well, but at last
coming to a steep pitch, suddenly the whole span stopped, and refused to
budge an inch farther. Frantically the driver lashed and lashed, and
cracked his whip, the reports resounding like a sharp fire of musketry
amid the hills. It was of no avail, and had not two of the men rushed
up with two huge masses of rock, which they placed behind the wheels,
the waggon would have gone backwards, and dragged the animals after it
to the bottom of the hill. In vain the driver shouted and yelled;
forward they would not go; but began twisting and turning round in their
yokes, some facing one way, some another; some dropping down on their
knees, others rolling over with the risk of being strangled by the riems
which secured them to the yoke. To Crawford's eye they appeared in a
state of confusion, from which it would be impossible to extricate them.
The Hottentots shouted, the driver leapt from his box, and with the
other boys rushed here and there, uttering yells, shouts, and
execrations while they plied their tough waggon whips with a vehemence
which brought blood at every stroke from the backs of the obstinate
brutes. Now they seized the animals' tails, twisting them round and
round, some actually seizing them with their teeth, while they
endeavoured to get them back into line, all the time shouting "Juk!
juk!" to make them start, or "Om! om!" whenever they wanted them to turn
round, generally at the same time hitting them on their noses with the
butt ends of their whips. Crawford and Percy could do nothing, but
Denis and Lionel exerted themselves fearlessly. At last old Dos,
dragging at the leading oxen with a riem, the whole span "trekked" at
the same moment, and in a few moments the waggon was again moving
forward at a slow pace.

"All our difficulties are not over yet," observed Hendricks to Crawford,
as they were walking ahead, leading their horses. "See, there's an ugly
spot yonder, which it will require all the skill of old Dos to surmount.
I'll leave the drivers, however, to their own resources. If I
interfered, they would