"Why, what could be done?" I said, excited by the black's cool and confident way, knowing as I did from old experience how full of ingenuity the brave fellow was. "Um?" he said thoughtfully, as he still watched the Boer lines. "No good to fight; Doppie too many." "Yes," said Denham impatiently. "You said so before." "Um?" said Joeboy, taking his eyes from the glass a moment or two to glance at the speaker, but turning away and raising the glass again; "Joeboy know." "Let's have it, then," said Denham, "for hang me if I can see how it could be done." "Big fool black fellow drive wagon," said Joeboy, still gazing through the glass, as if he could see those of whom he spoke. "'Nother big fool black fellow vorloper. Both fast sleep under wagon. Boss Val talk like Boer: double-Dutch." "Is that right?" said Denham. "Oh yes," I said. "I can speak like a Boer if it is necessary." "Um? Yes," said Joeboy quietly. "Think Doppie talky, Boss Val take Joeboy and go in a dark night up to wagon. Stoop down and kick big black fool driver and big black fool vorloper. `Get up!' he say. `Want sleep alway? Get up, big fool! Trek!'" "What?" I cried excitedly. "Um? Talk like Doppie, Boss Val talk. Big fool get up an' inspan. Boss Val get up on box an' keep call driver big black fool, like Doppie. Joeboy walk 'long o' vorloper. Tell 'im Joeboy 'tick assagai in um back if he talk, and drive right 'way." "Ha!" I said, with a heavy expiration of the breath. "But do you understand what he means?" "Oh yes, I understand," said Denham, laughing; "but where are the Doppies going to be all the while?" "Lying somewhere about, of course, asleep," I said excitedly; "but there would be no sentries over the wagons; and, as he says, the black foreloper and driver would be sleeping underneath." "Oh, that's right enough," said Denham impatiently. "But the noise, the rattle of the wagon, the getting of the oxen, and all the rest of it?" "The oxen would be all lying down with the trek-rope between them, and they'll quietly do what their black driver and foreloper wish. I think it could be done." "My dear boy, it's madness." "It isn't," I said angrily. "Joeboy is right, and a trick like this would perhaps succeed when force would fail. We must capture one of those wagons." "Oh, I'd have the lot while I was about it," cried Denham, laughing. "Be sensible," I cried pettishly. "Joeboy is right. Can't you see that it is the sheer impudence of the thing that would carry it through?" "No, old chap," he replied; "that I can't." "Well, I can," I said firmly. "The black driver and foreloper could be roused out of their sleep, and they take it as a matter of course that they were to drive the wagon somewhere else, and obey at once, especially if they are hurried by some one who speaks like a Boer."