likely to be troublesome; so I shall have no
difficulty in passing down with the waggons. You can tell your fathers
that we have had a most satisfactory trip, and I expect when I have sold
our goods at Durban they will have good reason to be content."

The lads gladly accepted the offer; they were longing to be at home
again, and especially wished to be back by Christmas.

The colonel on hearing of the arrangement heartily invited the lads to
mess with the regiment for the time that they continued with them, and
offered to have a spare tent pitched for their accommodation.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A TERRIBLE JOURNEY.

That evening Mr Harvey and the lads were again invited to dine at mess,
and after dinner the colonel asked Mr Harvey if he would be good enough
to tell them some of his adventures in the interior.

"I have had so many," the trader said, "that I hardly know which would
be most interesting. I have been many times attacked by the natives,
but I do not know that any of these affairs were so interesting as the
fight we had in the defile the other day. Some of the worst adventures
which we have to go through are those occasioned by want of water. I
have had several of these, but the worst was one which befell me on one
of my earliest trips up the country. On this occasion I did not as
usual accompany my father, but went with a trader named Macgregor, a
Scotchman, as my father was ill at the time. He considered me too young
to go by myself, and when he proposed to Macgregor that I should join
him with the usual number of waggons he sent up, Macgregor objected,
saying,--I have no doubt with justice,--that the double amount of goods
would be more than could be disposed of. He added, however, that he
should be glad if I would accompany him with a couple of waggons. It
was; as it turned out, a very good thing for my father that his venture
was such a small one. Macgregor was a keen trader; he understood the
native character well, and was generally very successful in his
ventures. His failing was that he was an obstinate, pig-headed man,
very positive in his own opinions, and distrusting all advice given him.

"Our trip had been a successful one. We penetrated very far in the
interior, and disposed of all our goods. When we had done so, we
started to strike down to Kimberley across a little-known and very sandy
district. The natives among whom we were, endeavoured to dissuade
Macgregor from making