oxen were
inspanned, the horses saddled, and everything was ready for "trekking."

And now arose the question, _whither_?

Up to this time Von Bloom had only thought of getting away from the
spot--of escaping beyond the naked waste that surrounded him.

It now became necessary to determine the direction in which they were to
travel--a most important consideration.

Important, indeed, as a little reflection showed. They might go in the
direction in which the locusts had gone, or that in which they had
_come_? On either route they might travel for scores of miles without
meeting with a mouthful of grass for the hungry animals; and in such a
case these would break down and perish.

Or the travellers might move in some other direction, and find grass,
but not water. Without water, not only would they have to fear for the
cattle, but for themselves--for their own lives. How important then it
was, which way they turned their faces!

At first the field-cornet bethought him of heading towards the
settlements. The nearest water in that direction was almost fifty miles
off. It lay to the eastward of the kraal. The locusts had just gone
that way. They would by this time have laid waste the whole country--
perhaps to the water or beyond it!

It would be a great risk going in that direction.

Northward lay the Kalihari desert. It would be hopeless to steer north.
Von Bloom knew of no oasis in the desert. Besides the locusts had come
from the north. They were drifting southward when first seen; and from
the time they had been observed passing in this last direction, they had
no doubt ere this wasted the plains far to the south.

The thoughts of the field-cornet were now turned to the west. It is
true the swarm had last approached from the west; but Von Bloom fancied
that they had first come down from the north, and that the sudden
veering round of the wind had caused them to change direction. He
thought that by trekking westward he would soon get beyond the ground
they had laid bare.

He knew something of the plains to the west--not much indeed, but he
knew that at about forty miles distance there was a spring with good
pasturage around it, upon whose water he could depend. He had once
visited it, while on a search for some of his cattle, that had wandered
thus far. Indeed, it then appeared to him a better situation for cattle
than the one he held, and he had often thought of moving to it. Its
great dista