THE EFFECTS OF MIRAGE OR FANCY. 2QI 



in a hesitating way, " It looks like Kaffir's,, or Griqua's, 

 but I do not think that it is waggon at all. If it was 

 waggon, the people would have stopped to speak to 

 us." 



" Then what in the name of goodness is it ? " I 

 exclaimed, rather crossly. 



" Bass ! I don't know ; never seen the like before. 

 Devil's waggon, perhaps ! " 



" Devil's, be hanged ! Come, hurry up, we'll soon 

 strike the trail, and soon after will find out to whom 

 the old rattletrap belongs. Come, be smart ! " 



But the boy was not smart : he came on, but most 

 unwillingly, and therefore slowly, making it evident 

 that if he dared he would have disobeyed my orders, 

 so I quickened my pace, and left him to follow at his 

 will. 



Although I rode on so as to cut the trail at right 

 angles, and the sand was heavy, therefore most 

 amenable to the impression made by wheels, not a 

 vestige of spoor could I discover. Still I was not 

 satisfied, but hurried to the " tope " of mimosa trees ; 

 nothing there was to be seen, in fact, there was 

 no hiding-place in it, the cover being too small to 

 screen a single horseman, let alone a great lumbering 

 waggon. 



I acknowledge that I was disconcerted, in truth I 

 felt so, for the affair was so unexpected, that for 

 some minutes I could not realize what it meant. 

 That it was anything supernatural, I do not for a 

 moment think that I had a suspicion, yet that I had 

 seen the cortege was indisputable, and where was it 

 now ? 



A very practical, hard-headed Scotchman and I 

 had been fooled by the mirage: seeing water and 

 miniature waves, we believed in them, when we knew 

 that they could not there exist. On that occasion 

 we vowed that such could never take place again, 

 and here I was as much humbugged as the veriest 



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