ting with heads down and shoulders raised,
apparently asleep and troubled about nothing. They all trusted to the
front wagon for guidance, as their teams, until the oxen were tired,
needed no driving whatever, but followed stolidly in the track of those
in front.

So slow!--so awfully slow! when I wanted them to go in a thunderous
gallop! Yet I knew this was folly. I wanted to play the hare, though I
knew that in this case the tortoise would win the race; for to have
hurried meant some accident, some breaking of the heavy wains: a wheel
off or broken, the giving way of trek-tow or dissel-boom. There was
nothing for it, I knew, but to proceed at the oxen's steady crawl, which
had this advantage: the wagons made very little noise passing over the
soft earth, the oxen none at all worth mention. But it was agonising,
now that we had started and actually been passed on by the enemy's
patrol, to keep on at that dreadful pace, which suggested that, even if
we did go on without further cheek, when day broke we should still be
within sight of the Boer lines and bring them out in a swarm to turn us
back.

It seemed to me we must have been creeping along for an hour, though
perhaps it was not half that time, when suddenly the first team of oxen
was stopped, the wheels of the first wagon ceased to move, and the whole
line came, in the most matter-of-fact way, to a stand. No one seemed to
heed, and the oxen went on contemplatively chewing their cud.

"What is it?" I said, running up to Joeboy.

"Um! Cist!" he whispered. "Doppie coming."

I could hear nothing, and it was too dark to see, so I stood listening
for quite a minute, knowing well that the black must be right, for his
hearing was wonderfully acute. Then in the distance I heard the sound
of trotting horses coming along at right angles towards us; and as it
occurred to me that the patrol would come into contact with us about the
middle of our long line, I began to wonder whether Joeboy would be able
to get the better of the Boer leader again.

Nearer and nearer they came, and a snort or the lowing of a bullock
would have betrayed us; but the stolid beasts went on ruminating, and,
to my utter astonishment, the little mounted party rode past a couple of
hundred yards behind the last wagon, as near as I can tell, and the
sound of the horses' hoofs and chink of bit against ring died away.

"Ha!" I ejaculated, with a sigh.

"Um?" said Joeboy, who had come by me