Off to the Wilds: Being the Adventures of Two Brothers

  CHAPTER THREE.

  PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY.

  "What is it ye're doing?" said Dinny, a day or two before that proposedfor the start.

  Coffee and Chicory looked up from their task, grinned, and then went onsharpening the points of a couple of assegais upon a heavy block ofstone, which they had evidently brought from a distance. Their facesglistened with perspiration; their knees were covered with dust; andthey were in a wonderful state of excitement. Resuming their work onthe instant, they tried to bring the weapons to a keen point.

  "Kill lion," said Coffee, laconically; and he worked away as if the lionwere round the corner waiting to be killed.

  "Then ye may just as well lave off, ye dirty little naygars; for it's mybelafe that you're not going at all."

  Dinny went off into the house leaving the two boys apparently paralysed.They dropped the assegais, stared at each other, and then lay down andhowled in the misery of their disappointment.

  But this did not last many seconds; for Coffee sprang up and kickedChicory, who also rose to his feet, and in obedience to a word from hisbrother they took their assegais and hid them in a tree which formedtheir armoury--for out of its branches Chicory took the two kiris orclubs; and then the boys ran round to the front, and stood making signs.

  The brothers had such a keen love of anything in the way of sport that,expecting something new, they ran out and willingly followed the twoyoung blacks out into the grassy plain about a mile from the house, whenafter posting their young masters behind a bush, Coffee and Chicorywhispered to them to watch, and then began to advance cautiously throughthe grass, kiri in hand, their eyes glistening as they keenly peeredfrom side to side.

  "What are they going to do?" said Dick.

  "I don't know. Show us something. I wish we had brought our guns.Look out!"

  There was a whirring of wings, and the two Zulu boys struck attitudesthat would have been models for a sculptor; then as a large bird similarto a partridge rose up, Coffee sent his knobbed club whizzing throughthe air; another bird rose, and Chicory imitated his brother's act; andthe result was, that the cleverly thrown kiris hit the birds, which fellin amongst the long grass, from which they were retrieved by the ladswith shouts of triumph--the birds proving to be the coranne, so calledfrom the peculiarity of their cry.

  "Well done, boys!" cried Jack. "They'll be good eating."

  "Boss Dick, Boss Jack take Zulu boys, now?" said the kiri-throwers,eagerly.

  "Why, of course. You know you are going," replied Dick.

  "Dinny say Zulu boys not going," cried Chicory.

  "Then Dinny knows nothing about it," said Dick, angrily. "If he don'tmind he'll be left behind himself."

  Coffee sent his kiri spinning up in the air, Chicory followed suit, eachcatching the weapon again with ease; and then they both dashed offacross the plain as if mad, and to the astonishment of the brothers, whotook the brace of birds and walked back towards the house, to continuethe preparations for the start.

  For there was so much to do, packing the great long tilted waggon withnecessaries, in the shape of tea, sugar, coffee, and chocolate. Barrelsof mealies or Indian corn, and wheaten flour, besides. Salt too, had tobe taken, and a large store of ammunition; for in addition to boxes wellfilled with cartridges, they took a keg or two of powder and a quantityof lead. Then there were rolls of brass wire, and a quantity of showybeads--the latter commodities to take the place of money in exchangeswith the natives--salt, powder, and lead answering the same purpose.

  It was a delightful task to the boys, who thoroughly enjoyed thepacking, and eagerly asked what every package contained, when they hadno opportunity of opening it; while Mr Rogers looked on, smiling at theinterest they took.

  "Here y'are, young gentlemen," said Dinny. "The masther seems to thinkthat you're going to do nothing but suck sweet-stuff all the time you'reout."

  "Why, what's that, Dinny?" cried Dick, who had just brought out a heavybox.

  "Sure, it's sugar-shticks and candy," said Dinny; and he went off tofetch something else.

  "Why, so it is, Dick," said Jack. "I say, father, are we to pack thissweet-stuff in the waggon? We don't want it."

  "Indeed, but we do," said his father, coming up. "Why a handful ofsweet-stuff will make friends with a Boer, when everything else fails.Here, put this in the fore box. Perhaps, when I bring this out you'llbe glad to get at the sweet-stuff."

  "What is it, father?" said Dick.

  Mr Rogers opened the little deal case and turned it out, to beginpacking it again.

  "Here's a bottle of chloroform, and another of castor oil; two bottlesof chlorodyne; a pound of Epsom salts; four large boxes of pills; a rollof sticking-plaster; a pot of zinc ointment; and a bottle of quinine andone of rhubarb and magnesia."

  Jack's countenance was a study. For as his father carefully repackedthe little box the lad's face grew into a hideous grimace. He waitedtill Mr Rogers had finished his enumeration, and then clapping hishandkerchief over his mouth, he uttered a loud "Ugh!" and ran and stooda few yards away.

  "I shan't go," he cried.

  "Why not?" said Mr Rogers, smiling.

  "Why the waggon will smell, of nothing but physic. What's the good oftaking it, father?"

  "The good? Well, my boy, there's nothing like being prepared; and weare going far away from doctors, if we wanted their help. We may noneof us be unwell, but it is quite likely that we may, either of us, get atouch of fever. Besides, we might meet with an accident; and for mypart, as I have a little knowledge of medicine and surgery, I knownothing more painful than to find people sick and to be unable to givethem the remedy that would make them well. We shall be sure to findsome sick people amongst the natives, and they have a wonderfulappreciation of the white man's medicine."

  "Well, look here," said Jack, "if you'll shut the box up very tightly,I'll consent to come."

  Mr Rogers smiled, and did shut the little box up very tightly, afterwhich the preparations went on; and it was perfectly wonderful to seewhat that waggon would hold.

  There was a moderate case of wines and spirits, also to act asmedicines; several dozens of coloured blankets for presents; waterproofsheets. A cask of paraffin oil was swung under the floor, and by it alittle cooking-stove, while beside these swung a long box containingspades and shovels, for digging the waggon-wheels out of holes, toolsfor repairs, wrenches, and jacks and axes, till it seemed as if therewould be no end to the stores and material.

  Then leather slings were nailed up under the tilt for the rifles andguns, so that they might always be ready to hand; for they were goinginto the land of wild beasts and savage men. Above all, their storeshad to be so packed that their positions could be remembered, and theycould be obtained when wanted, and yet leave space for blankets to bespread, and the travellers find room to sleep beneath the tilt upon thetop.

  The preparations went on; the black driver who was to manage the oxenbusied himself along with the foreloper, whose duty it is to walk withthe foremost oxen, in getting their great whips in trim, and in seeingthe trek-tow and dissel-boom--as the great trace and pole of the waggonare called--were perfect; and they practised the team as well.

  Many of the readers may not know that for an expedition like this, wherethe waggon party expect to be travelling for months, perhaps for a year,through a country where roads are almost unknown, and where the greatheavily-laden, but wonderfully strongly-made waggon, has to be draggedover rocks, through swamps, and into and out of rivers, a team offourteen, sixteen, or, as in this case, even twenty oxen, will be yokedto the great chain or rope called the trek-tow. For some of the pooranimals are sure to succumb during the journey; or they may be killedfor food, the loss being not so much felt when a superabundant number istaken.

  With the leading pair of oxen walks the foreloper, whose duty it is tochoose the best road, and to avoid stones and marshy places where thewheels would sink in; and the success of an expedition depends a gooddeal upon having a good
foreloper.

  In this case Mr Rogers had secured a trusty Kaffir, who had beenfrequently into the interior; but his appearance was against him, for hehad lost one eye, from a thrust of a bullock's horn. But Dinny saidthat the one left was as good as two, for when Dirk looked at you, itseemed to go right through your head and tickle the hair behind.

  Off to the Wilds--by George Manville Fenn