94 MELTON AND HOMESPUN 



dozen of those hideous ass vogels (vultures) are awaiting to 

 feast upon their carcasses. Just my luck/ continued Jack, 

 as he blew great clouds of ' Pioneer ' tobacco smoke in 

 the vain endeavour to drive away a cloud of bloodthirsty 

 mosquitoes, which buzzed about our heads like a swarm 

 of bees round a hive. 



" I agreed that it was very hard luck, but the crippled 

 span had to be made up with fresh mules or donkeys, 

 by fair means or foul, otherwise one of the wagons would 

 have to be abandoned, and bang would go a fourth part 

 of our aggregate fortune. For some little time we puffed 

 away at our ' corn-cobs ' in silence, and but for the distant 

 ' yap-yapping ' of a prowling jackal dead silence would 

 have reigned over that vast expanse of rolling veld, 

 for the Kafir drivers and loep-boys were fast asleep under 

 the wagons, and the mules were haltered to the dessel- 

 booms, round which had been built a laager of 'mcopi 

 thorn to secure the animals from beasts of prey. 



" At length I suggested that either Mortimore or myself 

 would have to set out at daybreak and scour the country 

 for mules, or failing mules, horses, or donkeys. A coin 

 bearing the effigy of Oom Paul was spun in the air, and 

 the same fell within the glow of the fire the reverse side 

 uppermost, Jack had lost the toss, and muttering some- 

 thing that sounded very unlike a blessing on specie 

 generally, and that of the late Transvaal Government in 

 particular, he jumped on his pony and cantered off 

 through the darkness towards a distant glimmer of light 

 which marked the scene of his own uitspaan, for owing to 

 one of my mules having cast a shoe I called a halt some 

 three miles to the rear of the leading wagons. 



" The first golden spears of early morning were gilding 



