clouds which had
been gathering all the morning, centred themselves at last directly
overhead; there was a succession of terrific peals of thunder following
upon blinding flashes of lightning, which seemed to play all round and
about the wagon, making Breezy stand shivering as he pressed close up
alongside, and drew the cattle together with their heads inward, as if
for mutual protection.

Then down came the rain in a perfect deluge, and for a good hour flash
and peal seemed to be engaged in trying to tear up the clouds, from
which the great drops of rain poured down.

The storm ceased as quickly as it had come on, and the rain having been
sucked up by the thirsty, sandy earth, so that when they started again,
save that the wagon-cover was soaked, drawn tight, and streaming, there
was no sign for a while of the storm. There were certainly the clouds
fading in the distance, but the sky overhead was of a glorious blue, the
little herbage they passed was newly washed and clean, and the drops
left sparkled in the brilliant sunshine.

What followed, then, came as a surprise.

They had gone on for some distance before it suddenly recurred to Dyke
that they had to cross the little river; and now, for the first time, he
became conscious of a low, soft murmur, as of insects swarming, but
this, though continuous, did not take his attention much, for he set it
down to a cloud of insects, roused from their torpor by the sun, and now
busily feeding, perhaps, close at hand, though invisible as he rode
gently along, breathing in with delight the sweet, cool air.

But at the end of half an hour the murmur had grown louder, and it
sounded louder still as he drew rein by some bushes to let Breezy crop
the moist shoots, while he waited for the wagon to come up, it being
about half a mile behind.

"How slowly and deliberately those beasts do move," thought Dyke, as he
watched the six sleek oxen, not a bit the worse for their journey,
plodding gravely along with the wagon lightly laden, as it was, for six
beasts to draw, bumping and swaying every now and then as a stone or two
stood up through the sand, he not being there to point them out to the
black, who sat on the wagon-box, with his chin upon his breast, rousing
himself from time to time to crack his whip and shout out some jargon to
the bullocks. These took not the slightest notice of whip-crack or
shout, but plodded slowly along, tossing their heads now and then, and
bringin