unheard. "Yes, all gone. Doppie
big fool. No see, no hear. Joeboy hear; Joeboy see wagon and bullock
long way off. Doppie got wool in um ear an' sand in um eyes."

"So have I, as compared with you, my big black friend," I thought to
myself; "but I don't want you to call me or think me a big fool, so I'll
hold my tongue."

"Doppie can't hear now," said Joeboy. "All agone. Not hear any more.--
Go on. Trek!" he cried in his deep, guttural tones; and the bullocks
dragged at the great tow-ropes, the axles groaned, and away we went
again in the same old crawl hour after hour, but without further alarm,
though in one prolonged agony of anxiety, during which I was always
looking or listening for pursuers.

Then came another trouble: the darkness was greater than ever. It was a
cloak, certainly, for our proceedings; but there was not a star visible
to guide us in our course towards the old stronghold.

"Think we're going right?" I asked again and again.

"Um? Joeboy think so," he always replied. "Wait till light come. Soon
know then."

Words of wisdom these, of course; but though we kept on in what we
believed a straight line for our goal, the line we were taking might be
right away from the camp, or we might be proceeding in a curve which
would bring us within easy reach of the enemy--perhaps as near as when
we started. Truly we were in the dark; and as the air grew colder
towards daybreak, everything looked, if possible, blacker still.

"Morrow morning," said Joeboy, suddenly coming back to where I trudged
alongside one of the wagons, whose drivers appeared to be all asleep.

I looked in the direction he indicated, and there was a faint dawn low
down on the horizon.

"Then we're going wrong, Joeboy," I said; "that's the east."

"Um!" he said. "Too much that way. Going right now."

I looked back in the direction of the Boer camp, but nothing was visible
there. It seemed as if the darkness lay like a cloud upon the earth;
but, upon turning again to look in the way the heads of the oxen were
pointed, I could see what looked like a hillock in the distance. Fixing
my eyes upon it, I could gradually see it more distinctly, and in a few
minutes' time made out that what had seemed like one hillock was really
two--the one natural, the other artificial: in other words, the pile of
ironstone and granite in one case, the built-up stronghold in the other.

"Joeboy," I said, beckoning him to one side after a