ovisions. Let half a dozen
take boxes of ammunition, and as many bales of the best cloth. Let the
rest take as many bundles of the best ostrich feathers as they can
carry. Let them lay them all on the slope, twenty or thirty yards up,
wherever they can find place for them, and then come down again, and
make as many trips with the best goods as they can."

All hands worked hard; inch by inch the water rose; Mr Harvey, assisted
by the boys and teamsters, fastened ropes together, and with these
surrounded the closely-packed throng of cattle. The water was now more
than waist-deep, and was still rising; soon the cattle on the outside
were lifted off their feet. There was no current here, and they floated
with their heads on the backs of those in front of them; higher and
higher the water rose, till the whole of the cattle were afloat. At
first a few struggled, but soon they subsided into quiet, and the whole
mass floated together, with only their heads above water.

On every available ledge on the hillside were placed bundles and bales
of all kinds, and here the whites and natives stood, watching the
progress of the flood. The thunder-shower had ceased soon after the
water first burst through the gorge, but Mr Harvey knew that some hours
must elapse before the flood would begin to abate.

"I don't see why the water should not run off as fast as it comes in,"
Dick said.

"It all depends, Dick, upon the question whether in the lower defile
there is any place narrower than the mouth, through which the water is
rushing from above. According to appearances this is so; for, could the
water escape faster than it comes in, the lake here would cease to rise.
I think now the water has reached a level, where the outflow nearly
equals the inflow. I have been watching the wheels of the waggons, and
for the last ten minutes I do not think it has risen above an inch or
two."

"I will get down and watch," Dick said, and he scrambled down to the
water's edge.

Two minutes later he shouted up,--

"It has not risen at all since I came here!" The teamsters had taken
their station on the outside waggons, and continued to talk and shout to
the oxen, exhorting these to be patient and quiet, as if the animals
were capable of understanding every word they said.

For three hours there was no change in the situation. Then all thought
that there was a slight decrease in the height of the torrent of water
pouring from the defile, a