r in the
deep cleft, but finding it impossible, the caravan continued its course.

"How much more of this desert have we to traverse," said Alexander,
"before we come to the river?"

[Illustration: THE TORTOISE DISCOVERY.]

"I fear that we shall not arrive there before to-morrow night," said
Swinton, "unless we travel on during the night, which I think will be
the best plan; for fatiguing as it will be to the animals, they will
be even more exhausted if they pass another day under the sun without
water, and at night they will bear their work better. We gain nothing by
stopping, as the longer they are on the journey, the more they will be
exhausted."

"I am really fearful for the horses, they suffer so much."

"At night we will wash their mouths with a sponge full of water; we can
spare so much for the poor creatures."

"In the deserts of Africa you have always one of three dangers to
encounter," said Swinton; "wild men, wild beasts, and want of water."

"And the last is the worst of the three," replied the Major. "We shall
have a moon to-night for a few hours."

"Yes, and if we had not, it would be of no consequence; the stars give
light enough, and we have little chance of wild beasts here. We now want
water; as soon as we get rid of that danger, we shall then have the
other to encounter."

The sun went down at last; the poor oxen toiled on with their tongues
hanging out of their mouths. At sunset, the relay oxen were yoked, and
they continued their course by the stars. The horses had been refreshed,
as Swinton had proposed; but they were too much exhausted to be ridden,
and our travelers, with their guns on their shoulders, and the dogs
loose, to give notice of any danger, now walked by the sides of the
wagons over the sandy ground. The stars shone out brilliantly, and even
the tired cattle felt relief, from the comparative coolness of the night
air. All was silent, except the creaking of the wheels of the wagons,
and the occasional sighs of the exhausted oxen, as they thus passed
through the desert.

"Well," observed the Major, after they had walked about an hour without
speaking, "I don't know what your thoughts may have been all this while,
but it has occurred to me that a party of pleasure may be carried to too
great lengths; and I think that I have been very selfish, in persuading
Wilmot to undergo all that we have undergone and are likely to undergo,
merely because I wished to shoot a giraffe."

"I