Later on, when they thought it was all over, they tried 

 to scrape out a grave for him, and began to pull out 

 one old blanket to wrap round him in place of a 

 shroud and coffin. It was then that the man opened 

 his eyes and faintly shook his head ; so they inspanned 

 as best they could and made another trek. I met the 

 man some years afterwards, and he told me he had 

 heard all they said, but could only remember one thing, 

 and that was Harry's remark, that ' two gin-cases were 

 not enough for a coffin, so they would have to take 

 one of the blankets instead.' 



In the morning they went on again. It was then 

 at most two treks more to their destination ; but they 

 were too weak to work or walk, and the cattle were left 

 to crawl along undriven ; but after half an hour's 

 trekking, they reached a bad drift where the waggon 

 stuck ; the cattle would not face the pull. The two 

 tottering trembling white men did their best, but 

 neither had strength to use the whip ; the umfaan 

 led the oxen this way and that, but there was no more 

 effort in them. The water had given out, and the 

 despairing helpless men saw death from thirst awaiting 

 them within a few hours' trek of help ; and to add to 

 the horror of it all, the Zulu driver, 

 with thirst aggravating his de- 

 lirium, was a raving lunatic 

 struggling and wrench- 

 ing at his bonds until the /, 

 waggon rattled, and utter- 

 ing maniac yells and gab- 

 bling incessantly. 



457 



Ira 1 - 



