waggons yielded to the tug. We had to run out 

 then and drive them up again to stay the stampede. 

 It is a favourite device of lions, when tackling camps 

 and outspans, for one of them to go to windward 

 so that the terrified animals on winding him may 

 stampede in the opposite direction where the other 

 lions are lying in wait. 



Two oxen broke away that night and were never seen 

 again. Once I saw a low light-coloured form steal 

 across the road, and took a shot at it ; but rifle-shooting 

 at night is a gamble, and there was no sign of a hit. 



I was too short-handed and too pressed for time to 

 make a real try for the lions next day, and after a 

 morning spent in fruitless search for the lost bullocks 

 we went on again. 



Instead of fifteen to eighteen miles a day, as we 

 should have done, we were then making between four 

 and eight and sometimes not one. The heat and 

 the drought were awful ; but at last we reached the 

 Crocodile and struck up the right bank for the short 

 cut Pettigrew's Road to Barberton, and there we 

 had good water and some pickings of grass and young 

 reeds along the river bank. 



The clouds piled up every afternoon ; the air grew 

 still and sultry ; the thunder growled and rumbled ; 

 a few drops of rain pitted the dusty road and pattered 

 on the dry leaves ; and that was all. Anything seemed 

 preferable to the intolerable heat and dust and drought, 

 and each day I hoped the rain would come, cost what 

 it might to the fly-bitten cattle ; but the days dragged 

 on, and still the rain held off. 



420 



