simply follow my directions, throwing the
responsibility upon me, and take no further trouble about the matter.
If they get into a fix, I try and get them out of it."

The ugly spot was reached. The path was sufficiently broad for the
waggon to pass, but it sloped down to the edge of a steep precipice, not
however quite perpendicular, as the tops of tall trees could be seen
rising out of its side, but sufficiently steep to cause a waggon to turn
over and over, and of a depth which would ensure its being crushed or
smashed to fragments when it reached the bottom. The Hottentots gazed
at it with uneasy glances. They first examined the harness, to see that
all was secure, they then fastened four riems of stout buffalo hide to
the side of the waggon opposite to the precipice. The whole of the
party were next summoned to lay hold of the other ends of the riems, and
the driver fixing himself on his box with his whip ready for action, Dos
went ahead, and the waggon started. The ground was of clay, excessively
slippery, and the party holding on to the riems and running alongside
the waggon, found it no easy matter to keep their feet. Every moment it
appeared that the waggon must slip down the steep incline. Lionel and
Denis worked as hard as any one, although their united weight did not do
much to keep back the heavy vehicle. All the party were slipping,
hauling, scrambling along, shouting at the top of their voices, now and
then one of them coming down in the mud, but still holding on to the
riems. The fear was that the oxen would come to a standstill. So long
as they kept moving, the danger was not so great; but there appeared
every probability, should the waggon once fetch way, that not only it
and the oxen, but the whole party, would be dragged over the precipice.
Hendricks, assisted by Crawford, had taken charge of the horses, and
rode on ahead, too well accustomed to similar adventures to feel
especially anxious about the matter.

"The waggon will get over it," he remarked; "if it does not, it will be
provoking; but I always make up my mind for an occasional accident,
although on the present occasion I should regret it very much, as it
would delay the search for my friend Maloney: for in spite of what
others think, I have hopes that he is still alive."

"Denis thinks so too, and frequently alludes to the subject. He could
not be as merry as he is if he believed that his father was really
lost," remarked Crawf