“An d’ye expect me to get in a boat at a place like that, Masther Dick? Now, by this and by that, ye don’t if I know it.”
“Never mind then, Dinny. You shall take your gun and shoot elephants. You know what they’re like?”
“Shure, I sin a picture o’ one wance,” said Dinny. “It was a little thing wid two tails, one at aych ind; and the boy as showed me telled me as they’re made of ingy-rubber.”
“Ah, yes, they’re very little things,” said Dick, laughing; and then they went to their dinner under the tree.
That evening the new pet was well attended to; and the leopard, now growing a fine sleek beast that loved to roll and gambol with the dogs, given his evening meat; and the remains of the daylight were spent in packing.
Next morning early, with the skin secure on the waggon-tilt, the sleek oxen were once more in-spanned, and the waggon rolled merrily on towards the falls of the Zambesi.
Four days trekking through a beautiful country brought them to where a continuous vibrating roar was always in the air, and in the distance what seemed to be one continuously changing cloud, which was lit up by the sun in a wondrous succession of hues.
The boys grew excited with expectation; and Dinny’s face became very blank as he whispered to Dick,—
“Shure, the river don’t always go on tumbling like that, Masther Jack, do it?”
“Always, Dinny,” said Jack, as he too listened, with a feeling of awe, to the falling water.