“Why, sure, sir, it would be very painful to you and Masther Jack there, and the masther himself, if you found poor Dinny get up some fine morning as black as a crow.”
“Get along with you,” cried Jack.
“Oh, be easy, Masther Jack, dear,” cried Dinny; “and how would you like to slape under a waggon wid five sacks of smoking and living coals like them Zulus and Kaffirs is?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” replied Jack. “We are on a hunting expedition, and we must take things in the rough.”
“Sure an’ it is rough indade,” grumbled Dinny. “I’m thinking I’d rather go sthraight home to my poor owld mother’s cabin, and slape there dacent like, wid nothing worse in it than the poor owld pig.”
Chapter Six.
A False Alarm.
Mr Rogers had felt a little hesitation in giving the fierce-looking Zulu permission to make one of the party, but as they journeyed on across the apparently interminable plains between the Vaal and the Great Crocodile rivers, he awoke more and more to the fact that he had secured a valuable ally. For the old warrior entered into the spirit of the expedition at once, helping with the oxen or to extricate the waggons in difficult places, showing himself quite at home in the management of horses, and being evidently an excellent guide, and above all a hunter of profound knowledge and experience.