orse rapidly. "Quick, boys, look at your
own, and if they have nothing on them--no little flies something like
house flies--take a tusk each, and ride back along the track as quick as
you can go."

The boys eagerly obeyed, and seeing no trace of flies, mounted, each
with a tusk before him, and cantered away, Mr Rogers following more
slowly with the bay and the Zulus--for the mischief was done; the
terrible tsetse fly had attacked the fine old horse, and it was only a
question of days or weeks before the poison would have finished its
work.

As it proved the two cobs had escaped almost by a miracle; but the
adventure was a warning to the party not to venture further, for they
had evidently made their way into a part of the country where this
terrible enemy to horses abounds.

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.

A FLIGHT FROM A FLY.

There was no time to lose, for, to the dismay of all, Peter announced
that he had found tsetse fly that afternoon upon the two horses that had
been grazing near the waggon.

"Three horses gone, boys," said Mr Rogers. "It is a bad job; but it
would have been worse if it had happened to your pets. We must be well
on the way back into a more wholesome country before day, so lie down
and have a rest at once. The General or the boys shall go on with you,
so that you may try to save your nags. I'll come on with the rest."

"But your horses don't seem any the worse for it, father," said Dick.

"No, my boy, and it may not show for days; but the poison will work, and
they will gradually grow weaker and weaker. They are all doomed."

"But is there no cure for it, father?"

"None that I know of, my boys; and it must act as a preventative to the
opening out of this grand country to civilisation, unless man can
improve these poisonous little pests off the face of the earth."

"It is wonderful," cried Dick; "such a little fly to do so much
mischief."

Coffee and Chicory aroused them hours before it was day, and with the
understanding that they were to keep on till night straight back upon
their old track, the boys started, enjoying to a certain extent the
journey without the waggon, but feeling the awful loneliness of the
country now more and more.

They made the best of their way on, however, getting over all the ground
possible, not halting till it was almost dark, and hardly leaving
themselves time to collect enough wood for a roaring fire, which they
kept blazing turn and turn, for they wer