On the afternoon of the same day that land was discovered from the masthead, the Stranger sailed into the port of Natal. As soon as the anchor was dropped the gig was called away, and Uncle Dick was rowed ashore, where he remained so long that the boys began to grow impatient and uneasy; but finally, to their great relief, they saw him coming back again, and they saw, too, that there was a trunk in the bow of the boat, and that a stranger was seated in the stern-sheets beside Uncle Dick—a tall, gray-headed man, with a weather-beaten face and mutton-chop whiskers. While they were wondering who he could be, the boat came alongside, and Uncle Dick and his companion sprang on board. “Mr. Baldwin,” said the captain, “have this trunk taken into the forecastle, and give this man a bunk there. Then get under way at once.”
“Under way,” repeated Walter. “What is the matter?”
“Nothing at all,” was the reply. “Come down into the cabin, and I will tell you what I have done since I went ashore.”
The boys followed, lost in wonder. The order to get under way, when they had fully expected that the schooner would remain at her present anchorage for six or eight months, surprised them greatly; but the captain explained it in a few words.
“While I was ashore I had the good fortune to meet an English colonel who has just returned from a hunting trip in the interior,” said he. “He has an outfit that he wants to sell, having no further use for it, and which is just the thing we want—a span of oxen, a wagon, a dozen ‘salted’ horses, and a whole armory of double-barrelled rifles. If they suit us we will buy them all in a lump, and that will save us two or three weeks’ time.”
The boys had read enough to know that a “span” of oxen was six yoke, and that a “salted” horse was an animal which had had the distemper and been cured of it. Such horses were hard to find, and it sometimes required considerable urging, and the display of a good deal of money, to induce their owners to part with them after they were found, for they were considered to be proof against the diseases which were so prevalent in the interior. Many a sportsman had the boys read of, who, when a thousand miles from the coast and in the midst of a fine hunting country, had suddenly found himself without a nag to ride, all his animals having been carried off by the distemper. Had he taken the precaution to purchase “salted” horses, he would not have been in so much danger of being placed in this disagreeable situation. True, the lions might kill his stock, or it might die for want of water; but these were perils that could oftentimes be averted by a little extra care and forethought.