the waggon."

"And the oxen?" cried Mr Rogers.

"Yes, father--in-spanned. And they are flying from the fire!"

Mr Rogers uttered a prayer of thankfulness as he rode on, till at the
end of a quarter of an hour they were close up with the waggon, while
the oxen, with Dirk the foreloper at the head and Peter on the box, were
going along in a clumsy gallop, urged by the shouts of their drivers and
their natural dread of the fire, coming after them with the fury of a
whirlwind.

The smoke was now blinding, the heat increasing, and it was hard work to
check the horses, who strove to gallop madly away as soon as they were
lightened of half their loads; for Coffee and Chicory followed the
example of their father in leaping down and running to the side of the
team to help urge on the frightened oxen, till they plunged along in
their clumsy race.

Faster and faster in the wild race for life! the flames roaring as they
came nearer! the waggon thundering over the ground, swaying from side to
side, and threatening each moment to overturn!

Twice it ran upon two wheels for some distance, and the boys knew that
if a stone of any size was met the waggon must be irretrievably wrecked,
and they saw in anticipation the flames overtaking it, scorching up the
valuables it contained, and ending by reaching the ammunition, when
everything must be blown to atoms.

Mr Rogers felt that the case was hopeless. The flames were close upon
them, and he was about to shout to the people to cut loose the oxen and
leave the waggon to its fate, when he saw Dick spring forward to the
side of the Zulu, who was with Dirk the foreloper, by the leading oxen.

Mr Rogers could not hear what his son said in the deafening roar, but
he saw him point, and the foreloper and the General urged the leading
oxen out of the course they were taking before the flames to one nearly
at right angles, turning them so sharply that the waggon again nearly
overset. It rose upon two wheels, but sank back on the others with a
crash; the oxen lumbered along in their awkward gallop, and the whole
business seemed madness.

Five minutes later, though, the leader saw that his son's act had been
guided by sound reasoning, for he had directed the team into a broad
open space where there was nothing to feed the flames. The consequence
was that as the wall of fire reached the edge of the opening it
gradually flickered out there, but rushed along on either side in two
volumes o