tances, I decided to keep up the appearance of having got in for
the sake of a rest, and sat back upon one of the sacks.

However, I was not permitted to stay long inside, for as soon as the
mounted Boers were out of hearing Joeboy came to the front of the wagon
and called to me in his deep tones--speaking in Boer Dutch--to come out.

I stepped out past the driver, yawning as if tired, and leaped down, to
walk on with the black.

"Hadn't you better turn the heads of the leading bullocks now towards
the laager, Joeboy?" I said.

"Um? Did," he replied, "soon as Doppie captain went away. Going
straight home now."

"Ah!" I ejaculated. "Capital! But we shall be stopped again and sent
back."

"Um? Joeboy don't think so. Doppie over there, and Doppie over there,"
he said, pointing in opposite directions with his assagai.

"You think we shall not meet another party, then?"

"Um? Can't hear any," he replied.

"But about the drivers and forelopers? When they find where we're going
they'll want to go back to the lines."

"Um? No," said Joeboy decidedly. "Black Kaffir chap. Not think at
all. Very sleepy, Boss Val. Jus' like big bullock. You an' Joeboy
tell um go along and they go along."

"But suppose they turned suspicious and said they wouldn't go with us?"

"Um?" said Joeboy, and I heard him grind his teeth. "They say that,
Joeboy kill um all: 'tick assagai in back an' front. All big 'tupid
fool. Ha! ha! Joeboy almost eat um." He laughed in a peculiar way
that was not pleasant, and it moved me to say:

"Don't attempt to touch them if they turn against us. I'll threaten
them with my pistol."

"Um? Boss Val think better shoot one? No; Boss Val mustn't make Doppie
come. Joeboy say `Trek,' and they no trek, he 'tick assagai in um
back."

"No, no; there must be no bloodshed."

"Um? Blood? No; only 'tick in little way. Make um go like bullock.
Make um go like what Boss Val call `'tampeed.' Black Kaffir boy not say
`Won't go.' Be 'fraid o' Joeboy."

I thought it very probable, and said no more. Leaving him with the
foreloper of the first wagon, I stood fast and listened intently while
the whole of the six great lumbering wagons, drawn by their teams
averaging four-and-twenty oxen, crept past me. The forelopers walked
slouching along, shouldering a bamboo sixteen or eighteen feet long,
without so much as turning their heads in my direction; and the drivers
on the wagon-boxes were sit