roof
sheets. A cask of paraffin oil was swung under the floor, and by it a
little cooking-stove, while beside these swung a long box containing
spades and shovels, for digging the waggon-wheels out of holes, tools
for repairs, wrenches, and jacks and axes, till it seemed as if there
would be no end to the stores and material.

Then leather slings were nailed up under the tilt for the rifles and
guns, so that they might always be ready to hand; for they were going
into the land of wild beasts and savage men. Above all, their stores
had to be so packed that their positions could be remembered, and they
could be obtained when wanted, and yet leave space for blankets to be
spread, and the travellers find room to sleep beneath the tilt upon the
top.

The preparations went on; the black driver who was to manage the oxen
busied himself along with the foreloper, whose duty it is to walk with
the foremost oxen, in getting their great whips in trim, and in seeing
the trek-tow and dissel-boom--as the great trace and pole of the waggon
are called--were perfect; and they practised the team as well.

Many of the readers may not know that for an expedition like this, where
the waggon party expect to be travelling for months, perhaps for a year,
through a country where roads are almost unknown, and where the great
heavily-laden, but wonderfully strongly-made waggon, has to be dragged
over rocks, through swamps, and into and out of rivers, a team of
fourteen, sixteen, or, as in this case, even twenty oxen, will be yoked
to the great chain or rope called the trek-tow. For some of the poor
animals are sure to succumb during the journey; or they may be killed
for food, the loss being not so much felt when a superabundant number is
taken.

With the leading pair of oxen walks the foreloper, whose duty it is to
choose the best road, and to avoid stones and marshy places where the
wheels would sink in; and the success of an expedition depends a good
deal upon having a good foreloper.

In this case Mr Rogers had secured a trusty Kaffir, who had been
frequently into the interior; but his appearance was against him, for he
had lost one eye, from a thrust of a bullock's horn. But Dinny said
that the one left was as good as two, for when Dirk looked at you, it
seemed to go right through your head and tickle the hair behind.

Off to the Wilds--by George Manville Fenn

CHAPTER FOUR.

INSPANNING FOR THE TRIP.

The eventful morning