assus evidently believed him, for he held on all the tighter. Dinny
dragged hard, but the dog's jaws had closed upon the wood like a steel
trap, and though Dinny dragged him here and there, he did not leave go;
and so sure as the man began to obtain a little advantage, Pompey and
Caesar made such a desperate attack upon his rear that he immediately
lost ground, and the French and English tug-of-war continued, the dogs
barking, Dinny abusing them, and the boys, black as well as white,
shouting with delight.

This was very good fun for the latter, but anything but pleasant for
Dinny. In fact, so bad was his case, and so threatening the aspect of
the dogs, that any one who would have insured the legs of Dinny's
trousers from being torn by the dogs, would have been guilty of a very
insane act, especially as Rough'un, after sitting up on end encouraging
Crassus to hold on to the assegai staff by a loud bark now and then,
suddenly took it into his head to join in the fray.

For Dinny had not been particularly friendly to him since they started.
Upon one occasion Dinny had tickled him--so he called it--with Peter's
whip, the tickling consisting in giving the dog so severe a flick that
it seemed like taking out a piece of the flesh; while no later than that
morning Rough'un felt that he had been misused in the matter of the skin
that he wanted to lick.

So, unable to bear matters any longer, Rough'un, who had momentarily
grown more excited, suddenly made an open-mouthed onslaught upon the
assegai stock.

"Carl him off, Masther Dick, Masther Jack. Oh, murther, what'll I do.
Ah! get out--get--"

Dinny said no more, but loosed his hold of the assegai, and fled,
leaping on to the front box of the waggon, and then climbing in beneath
the tilt, while the dogs chased him, barking and baying him furiously.

This did not last, however, for the denuding of the gnu's bones was
pretty well ended, and one of the oxen dragged the remains into the
forest, when the dogs were called up, and Dinny was forgotten.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

A BUFFALO RUN.

The General owned that there would be good hunting here, but he wanted
to get the party well into the interior, where, taking up a central
position, they could make excursions in any direction according to the
way in which the game lay. If they stayed where they were, all they
would do would be to drive the game away, and it would grow more scarce.

The boys were as eager as the Gener