g their horns in contact with a loud rap.

At last they came up abreast, and Jack turned his dark face, and grinned
meaningly.

"What is it?" said Dyke. "Glad you are so near home?"

"No see Tanta Sal night," he said.

"Oh yes, we will," replied Dyke. "I mean to be home before we sleep."

Jack shook his head.

"You'll see, my fine fellow," said Dyke to himself. "If you are going
to begin any games just for a finish off on the last day, you'll find
you'll be startled. I'll set Duke at him, and scare the beggar," he
muttered, as he laughed to himself at the man's genuine belief in, and
alarm about, the dog; and in imagination he saw Jack hopping about and
yelling, and afraid to come down from the wagon-box in front on account
of Duke, who would be barking and dancing about as if trying to drag him
off.

He let the wagon go on then for a few yards, and hung back so as to say
a few cheery words to the dog, who responded with a sharp bark or two,
but did not come from beneath the wagon.

And now the noise grew louder and louder, till at last Dyke began to
divine the cause. A short distance farther the open plain was crossed
by an erratic line of trees and rocks, forming a green and grey zigzag
of some three hundred yards wide, and down in a hollow, hidden till
close up, there was the rivulet-like stream at which he had halted on
his outward way to let the animals drink.

It was from there, then, that the now rapidly increasing murmur arose,
and pressing his nag's sides, he rode rapidly on to reach the side of
the tiny bourn, which now proved to be a fierce torrent nearly a hundred
yards wide, raging amongst rocks, tossing up beady spray, and putting an
end to all his hopes of reaching home that night, for even as he looked
he could see that the water was rising still, and any attempt to ford
meant certain death to man and beast.

Dyke's heart sank. He knew now the meaning of the Kaffir's grin. It
was the first trouble of the homeward way.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

OUT OF PATIENCE.

The wagon came slowly up as Dyke stood watching the roaring river, full
from side to side with the waters, which resulted from a cloud-burst in
the distant mountains, where storms had been raging on the previous day,
that which they had encountered a short time before being the remains of
one of the drifts which had passed over the great plain.

As he drove up, Jack sat grinning pleasantly upon the box, and of his
own will