CHAPTER ELEVEN.
HOW TO RIDE.
"Poor old chaps!" cried Nic, as the dogs leaped and tore about when he left them, each straining at its collar with starting eyes, and uttering in unison a piteous howl which could only bear one interpretation: "Oh, I say, it's too bad! Don't keep us tied up like this." Nic was ready to pity them again a few minutes after, when, in obedience to a shout and the crack of a whip, the sleek oxen, which stood yoked, blinking and chewing their cuds, started for the day's march, tightening the dogs' chains.

Then the collies sulkily allowed themselves to be dragged along by the neck for a few yards before, feeling that resistance was in vain, they gave up and began to start barking in protest, running forward as far as their chains would allow under the waggon, as if longing to get at the oxen's heels, and finally, after a loud yelp or two at one another, settling down to their prisoners' tramp.
The horses were bridled and saddled after Nic had taken his gun from where it had been stood against a tree.

The two men were in front of the team, with Brookes talking loudly and unpleasantly to his fellow; and the black was following behind the dogs, with his spear over his shoulder, at times lowering it to stir the dogs up behind whenever they showed an inclination to hang back.
This happened a minute after the start had been made, and Nic burst out laughing.
"I say, father, look at that," he cried.
"I was looking, my boy," said the doctor.

"That fellow seems to understand the dogs better than we do." For, at the first touch of the spear, one of the collies turned round sharply, and barked; then the other received a prod--from the blunt end in both cases--and the bark uttered was exactly like a protesting "_Don't_!" But the black, who was safe from attack as long as he kept beyond the reach of the chain, continued to administer pokes, with the result that the dogs trotted on as far as they could, looking back the while and uttering threatening barks and growls.
But the long spear followed them right under the waggon, and kept up the annoyance, till, as if moved by the same impulse, the dogs charged back together to the extent of their chains, and the black made a bound out of the animals' reach.
The result was that when, after a final look round to see that nothing had been left, the doctor gave the order to mount, the dogs were right under the waggon, with their tongues out, tugging away at their chains as sharply as if they had been born in Kamtschatka and belonged to Eskimo.
"That's better," said the doctor, as Nic landed in his saddle without making a show in imitation of vaulting ambition and seeming about to fall over on the other side.

"Down again, and mount." Nic obeyed.
"That's worse," said the doctor.