icks, kept crawling under the waggon, till
Chicory took pity upon them and curled up in company, forming such a
knot that it was hard to make out which was Chicory and which was dog.
But the Zulu boy said it was nice and warm, all but one little place
where there was no Pompey, and one leg which he couldn't get under
Crass.

Fortunately the roar of the elements was sufficient to keep the
predatory beasts in their lairs, or they would have had an easy task to
seize upon oxen or horses, for it was as impossible in the darkness to
find thorns and build a kraal, as it was in the wet to get a fire to
burn.

Dick said the night was "as miserable as mizzer," and that Jack got all
the blanket; but, like all other things, that miserable night came to an
end, and as the sun rose up warm and bright, up sprang the spirits of
all with it; and as the steam reeked from the soaked waggon, they turned
from it to look with a curious sense of shrinking at the narrow escape
they had had.

For where the foremost oxen had been checked, consequent upon the
General's warning, there was a great crack right across their path, some
twenty feet wide, double that distance deep, and running for several
hundred yards right and left.

But for the General's timely warning the whole team would have gone in,
dragging after them the waggon, and the horses which were haltered on
behind, producing such an awful wreck that the expedition must have
stopped; and then there would have been the problem to solve, how should
they get back to Natal.

As the sun grew warmer, and a fire had been lighted, food cooked, and a
hearty breakfast made, the troubles of the past night were forgotten,
and in the best of spirits they went on again, after a detour to avoid
the chasm, the moistened earth smelling delicious, and the birds
twittering and singing joyously in every tree.

So far they had avoided the kraals or villages of the various peoples of
these parts of Africa, but now the General announced that they were at
last approaching the big river, where they would have to ask the black
king's permission to hunt, and make him a present for his concession.

For in his land there were the giraffe, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and
elephant--huge beasts, the names of which made the boys' pulses throb
with excitement.

There were crocodiles too in plenty in the big river, so the General
said; and it was there that the river fell.

The idea of seeing the wondrous fall