"Yes, sir, at least of the Dutch for twenty miles round Richmond and Brakpoort; they are almost to a man hostile, and I fancy from what I heard it is the same in most districts."
"I will think the matter over; there is no hurry for a fewdays. If the Boers advance to-morrow, when the time they have given us is up, and push straight on, which would certainly seem to be their best policy, we cannot move forward, but shall have to stand wholly on the defensive till reinforcements arrive from home; and to take stores up-country will simply mean their falling into the hands of the Boers. If I go up I shall certainly be glad to take you with me. Your boy would be invaluable in the way of obtaining information, if he is as sharp as you say he is trustworthy, but I see a difficulty in employing you both as civilians."
There was great satisfaction in Cape Town when the news came that government had announced in the House that arrangements had already been made for the instant transport of seven thousand men from India. Two days later Yorke received an invitation to breakfast with the colonel. He found a third person at the small table that the officer had secured.
"This is Mr. Harberton," the latter said, "the young gentleman of whom I was speaking to you, Major Mackintosh. Major Mackintosh is in command of one of the local volunteer corps here, and at my request, Mr. Harberton, he has arranged to give you a commission in his corps, and to allow you to be seconded for service as one of my assistants. I think that will meet all difficulties. While on service you will, of course, receive the pay of your rank, and an allowance for horse and forage. Your boy must also enlist in the corps, and will similarly obtain leave to go as your servant; he will, while on duty, draw the pay and rations of a private."
"Thank you indeed, sir," Yorke said gratefully; "and thank you also, Major Mackintosh; this is more than I had ever ventured to hope for."
"I had the more pleasure in granting the colonel's request," the officer said, "inasmuch as I am myself a public-school boy. I am an Etonian, and can quite understand your eagerness to take part in this business. I have large numbers of applications for enlistment, and I have no doubt that asmatters progress several fresh corps will be raised. My staff of officers is nearly made up, but I have no difficulty in granting you a commission, as when you are seconded for other duties it will leave a vacancy, so that it is a mere matter of arrangement. I will send in your name to-day to Sir William Butler. You had better attend at once at the orderly room, with your Dutch servant, to be sworn in, and then get your uniforms. I dare say you know what they are."
"Yes, sir; I saw the corps march through the streets the other day."
"Of course you will not want a full-dress uniform, Mr. Harberton," the colonel said; "and you will take up your civilian clothes, both those you stand in and the dress of a Dutch farmer; and your servant will do the same, and will, of course, dress as a farm hand when he is away on any scouting expedition."
"Certainly, sir. I suppose I can bring my rifle with me?"
"Yes; what rifle is it?"
"A Lee-Metford, sir."
"That is right; it would be of no use taking up one that would not carry government ammunition."
"How long have you been in the colony, Mr. Harberton?" the major asked.
"Six months, sir."
"You have done well to learn the language so quickly."
"The cousin with whom I was staying, sir, married a Dutch lady, and as he had been out here twenty years, Dutch was generally spoken in the house. I spent my whole time in riding and practising shooting, and I always had this Dutch boy with me. He talks English, but we talked when together in Dutch, as I was anxious to learn it."
"I suppose you were accustomed to ride before you came out here?"
"Yes, my father kept three horses, and bred them so that I learned to ride as far back as I can remember."
"You left school early, for you cannot be past seventeen yet?"
"Yes, sir. My father is a clergyman, and had a good private income, but the Birmingham and Coventry Bank, in which his money was all invested, went to smash, and as the living was by no means a rich one, I had to leave school. I had been invited here by my cousin, when he was in England a year before, and it was thought that I could not do better than to come out to him, and after being with him for a time, try to make my own way."
"And so you left him because you thought war was coming on?"
Yorke smiled. "Not exactly, sir, though I had made up my mind to do so if there was war; but I really left him because of a row with a Dutch cousin of my cousin's wife. I think it was partly jealousy at my being established at the farm, but the actual quarrel was about shooting. He was very proud of his marksmanship, and I beat him in a trial of skill. Two days afterwards he shot at me when I was out riding. He put a ball through my hat, and made sure he had killed me; but I returned the fire, and hit him. I was afraid at first that I had killed him, but he was not dead when I came away. Fortunately, Hans, my boy, was with me, and was able to prove that he fired the first shot; but my cousin said that I had better leave at once, for the affair would create an ill-feeling among his friends, and my life would not be safe. So off I came. My cousin provided me well with money, so I thought that, before deciding upon what to do, I would wait and see if war really broke out; but in any case I thought of enlisting in a cavalry regiment. I might get a commission some day, and if I didn't, a few years in the ranks would perhaps do me good. I could buy myself out when I was able to see some other way to earn a living."
"That was as wise a determination as you could have taken under the circumstances," the colonel said. "A few years in the army does no man any harm, if he is steady and well-conducted; and if well educated, as you are, he is certain to get his stripes in a couple of years. The life of a non-commissioned officer is by no means an unpleasant one; and there is always a chance of getting a commission, though this is not a very bright one, as so many young fellows who, having failed to pass, enter the ranks with the hope of getting one some day."
Then the talk turned to the probable course of the war. The two officers agreed that if the Boers contented themselves with holding the passes into Natal, and threw their force, which was estimated at fifty thousand, in five divisions, each ten thousand strong, into Cape Colony, they could sweep the whole country up to Cape Town before any force could arrive from England to arrest their progress, and that in their advance their numbers would probably be doubled by recruits from the discontented portion of the Dutch population.
"I am in great hopes that they will besiege Kimberley," the colonel said. "Our having of the diamond mines there has always been a sore point with the Free State, and one of their reasons for joining the Transvaal undoubtedly is to obtain possession, which I feel sure they will not do. Then possibly a considerable force of the Transvaal men may knock their heads against Mafeking. It is the nearest point to Pretoria, and it was from there that the Jameson Raid started. They may take that. Baden-Powell, who is a first-rate man, went up to take the command there ten days ago. He is sure to defend the place till the last, but even if he does but hold out for a fortnight, the time gained will be invaluable to us. Time is everything. But in any case, I fear that it is going to be a very big job, certainly a great deal bigger than anything we have had since the mutiny.
"If we could but get all the Boers together, fifty thousand men might do it. As it is, we may want double that number, though I do not think the home government has any idea that such a force will be requisite. We made the usual hideous mistake of not being ready, and the still greater one of allowing the Boers to obtain enormous quantities of rifles and ammunition. When our government were first warned of what was going on, they should have put their foot down, and told Kruger bluntly that, as he could be arming in this tremendous manner only for war with us, we should not allow the importation of arms into the colony."
"They could have got them up through Lourenço Marques," the major said.
"Well, then, government should have gone a step further. They should have told Portugal that, although we did not wish to quarrel with her, we insisted upon her refusing to allow arms to be landed at Lourenço Marques, that we should send a military officer as our consul there to inspect all imports, and that we should station a ship of war there to support him, as it would be impossible for us to allow the port to be used as a centre through which military munitions, intended to be some day used against us, might be passed up-country."
"But if Portugal refused, as she no doubt would, to submit to such a high-handed action, she would probably have been supported by several European nations—certainly by France in her present mood, possibly by both Russia and Germany."
"In that case," the colonel said, "we should have had two alternatives: either to fight the lot of them with our fleet, which we could do; or else to send five thousand men up into the Transvaal to Komati Poort, and so to prevent the arms entering from the Portuguese frontier. The Boers were then comparatively unarmed, and if, as is likely, they had chosen to fight, we should have had a fairly easy job. The Queen has sovereign rights there, and it is no great stretch of sovereign rights to quarter troops in the country. However, I have no doubt they would have fought; after our surrender at Majuba, they thought, and still think, themselves invincible. But the affair would have been mere child's play to what it will be at present. It was a difficult problem, nodoubt, for a British ministry to face, but it ought to have been faced. It was a question of grasping the nettle. With such a majority as they have got behind them, stronger men would not have hesitated to do so. A fire can be put out easily enough when it once starts, but if it is left alone till it has got a big hold, there is no saying what may happen when there is a strong wind blowing."
"Now, Hans," Yorke said, after having told the news to his follower, "you have to do credit to yourself and me, to try and look smart when you are in uniform, to keep those long arms of yours from swinging about, to hold your head up, and to walk briskly and smartly."
"I will do my best, Master Yorke," Hans said with a grin; "but I don't think I shall ever look like those soldiers I have seen walking about the street, especially those chaps with trousers that look so tight. I can't make out how they can sit down."
"Those are the cavalry, Hans; you won't be expected to look like them. I fancy the corps here wear white in summer; but that is certainly not a good colour for campaigning, and the major said that there was some talk of dyeing them a sort of light brown, that wouldn't show the dirt, and would not want so much washing, and, above all, would not make such a conspicuous mark for an enemy. It is the same sort of colour as the regular troops wear here in summer, and I expect that in a short time they will all take to it instead of scarlet."
"Well, I don't care much how they dress me, so long as they let me go with you, Master Yorke."
After going to the head-quarters of the corps, and being sworn in, Yorke went to the tailor who had the contract for the uniforms. He found that Major Mackintosh had just come in, and had ordered that no more uniforms should be made for members of the corps until they heard again from him, which would be the next morning, as he had summoneda council of the officers. Yorke and Hans were, however, measured and the tailor promised to put their uniforms in hand directly he received the major's instructions to go on.
Yorke had been invited by the adjutant to attend the meeting of the officers. He listened to the discussion, and, was glad to learn that khaki drill was generally approved of as the material for the uniforms of the corps, to be used with brown belts and accoutrements, and wide-brimmed felt hats of the same colour as the coats. He was introduced to the other officers by Major Mackintosh, who laughingly told them that they must make the most of him, as Colonel Pinkerton had requisitioned him for service.
The following morning Hans was set to work drilling with a batch of other recruits. This was not necessary in Yorke's case, as he had for two years been a member of the Rugby Cadet corps, and therefore knew as much of drill as most of the officers. Thus, when in the cool of the evening the whole corps turned out, he was able to play his new part satisfactorily. Colonel Pinkerton had strolled down to witness the drill. The gathering was a very motley one, for the men were not in uniform, and all classes were represented.
"I was glad to see you knew your work," the colonel said to him on his return. "You did not tell me that you knew anything of soldiering."
"I do not know very much, sir; but I was a member of the school corps for two years, and we flattered ourselves we were pretty smart. Of course many of the fellows were meant for the army, and were very keen about it. But I think we all took a good deal of pride in drilling well, and though I was not an officer, of course I knew where the officers should be placed in each movement."
"Well, you will not want it much while you are with me; but when you are among soldiers it is as well to be able to show that you know the work of an officer. At present there is no idea whatever of the volunteers going to the front; but there is no saying what may take place in the courseof a few weeks, if the Boers are sharp enough to take advantage of the situation."
Three days later Yorke and Hans started with the colonel up the line. He had two young Engineer officers with him. The colonel's two horses and Yorke's were taken in a truck under the charge of Hans and the colonel's soldier servant. Trains of provisions and stores for Kimberley and Mafeking were being sent up rapidly, and depots formed at several points along the line. It had not been deemed prudent to send them very far until the plans of the Boers were apparent. The horse-box and the carriage in which the officers travelled were detached from the train at points that were considered important. Here they remained for a few hours, and were then attached to another train. While the colonel and his assistants examined the culverts and bridges, and made notes of their relative importance, Yorke made enquiries from British farmers as to the disposition of the Dutch population, and Hans resumed the clothes in which he had left the farm, and, under pretext of looking for a situation, entered into conversation with men of his own class.
The reports naturally varied a good deal. The opinion of the English colonists was that although the Dutch sympathies might be strongly with the Transvaal Boers, few of them were likely to take any active steps to join them, unless they invaded the Colony in great force. Many of the young men, however, were missing, and it was generally believed that they had started to join their kinsmen in the Transvaal. Many of the better class of farmers who had been often at Cape Town, where not a few of them had received their education, were much better acquainted with the military power of Great Britain than were the mass of the Dutch population; and these, whatever their sympathies might be, were of opinion that in the long run her strength must over-power that of the Boers, and that an enormous amount of suffering and damage would result. They admitted that they themselves had nothing whatever to grumble at under theBritish flag, and acknowledged that the government of the Transvaal treated the Uitlander population there in a very different manner, and that had that government been ready to grant the same treatment to them as the Dutch of Cape Colony enjoyed, there would never have been any trouble.
"I think it all means," the colonel said one day when they were discussing the reports brought in, "that if we thrash the Boers the Colony will remain quiet; if they gain any big success, the greater portion of the Dutch here will join them. But no doubt there will be trouble in getting the trains through; it is impossible to guard such an enormous length of line. The utmost that can be done will be to have detachments posted at all the bridges whose destruction would cause serious delay. We can hardly doubt that rails will be pulled up and culverts destroyed, for this can be done by two or three men working at night. But of course each train going up will carry a few rails and a couple of balks of timber, tools, and three or four railway men, and the repairs can be executed with only a very short delay."
Four days after starting the party arrived at De Aar, which had been selected as the most favourable position as a base. At this place a line of railway from Port Elizabeth joined that from Cape Town. Seventy or eighty miles down the Port Elizabeth line were junctions at Naauwpoort and Middelburg Road, the former with the main line running up through the Orange Free State to Pretoria and Pietersburg, the latter joining the line from East London at Stormberg, north of which was a branch to Aliwal North, and another crossing the Orange River at Bethulie, and joining the main Orange Free State line at Springfontein. Whatever might be the intention of the Dutch later on, so far there had been no attempts whatever to meddle with the railway. The waggon trains loaded with stores went up in rapid succession, and on their way met almost as many crowded with refugees from the Transvaal, the Free State, and Kimberley.
Miners and store-keepers, millionaires and mechanics, wereclosely packed, with little distinction of rank, and Yorke and his fellow-officers frequently expressed their disgust that so many able-bodied men should be flying, when on crossing the frontier they might well have gone to Kimberley, Colesberg, and other places to take part in the defence of the towns. The first blow had been struck. An armour-plated train going up to Mafeking had on the 12th been fired at with guns and derailed. Lieutenant Nesbit and the soldiers with him had defended themselves gallantly, but had at last been obliged to surrender. From Natal the telegrams were of a still more exciting nature. The invasion of that colony began a few hours before the ultimatum expired, and it was expected that the force under General Penn Symons would be attacked in the course of a day or two.
The Loyal North Lancashires had passed them the day after they started. Four companies had gone on to Kimberley, the rest had encamped at Orange River station.
Many mules and trek oxen had been sent up, and large numbers of Kaffirs, and the station at De Aar presented a busy scene. Wooden sheds had already been erected by the Engineers, and these were being filled with the more perishable articles, such as sugar and tea; stacks of bags of flour and mealies, and of cases of tinned meat, were rising in the open, while everywhere were piles of stores of all kinds lying just where they had been thrown from the trucks on the sidings. An hour after Yorke's arrival the colonel was occupied in fixing on a site for a battery. This was selected on the top of a rising mound near the station, and from this the guns, when placed in position, would sweep the surrounding country. Tents were pitched for the party, and in these they speedily settled down.
"Now, Mr. Harberton," the colonel said that evening, "it does not seem to me that at present I have any occasion for your services here. We shall trace the lines of the fort to-morrow morning; a train with four hundred Kaffirs will arrive this evening, and we shall get to work by breakfasttime. Then one officer and a couple of the sappers will be sufficient to look after them, while we shall attend to getting things in readiness for the arrival of more troops. So far the railway between this and Kimberley is still open, but it is certain that it will not be so for long. I think you can be most usefully employed in riding through Philipstown and Petrusville, and scouting between Zoutpans Drift and thence to Hondeblafs River and Colesberg Bridge.
"Between these places there is, so far as I know, no ford, and we may assume that if the Free State men cross in any strength it will be at one or other of these points; but small parties may possibly swim the river and attempt to cut the line north. At any rate, it is well that we should learn what is going on, and get early information of the movements of any of the enemy's parties. I am in hopes that no combined advance on their part will take place till we have got our guns mounted, for at present we are certainly not in a position to offer any serious resistance to an attacking force. Fortunately the Free State men are not as well prepared for a contest as the Transvaalers, and we know by the fugitives who have come down that very many of them are altogether opposed to Steyn's policy. Moreover, it is probable that they will direct their first effort against Kimberley; but it is as well to be forewarned.
"You can, of course, if you think proper, cross the Orange River in your Dutch disguise and gather news there. We can get very little reliable information from the fugitives, they seem to have swallowed every wild report in circulation; and if we were to credit their accounts we should believe that at least a hundred thousand Free Staters—that is to say, pretty nearly every adult male—were already under arms and on the march for the frontier. I have no faith whatever in such reports. I believe it far more likely that, as fast as they can be organized, a portion will march on Kimberley, but that their main force will go down through the passes in the Drakenberg to join the Transvaal force in Natal. That, Ithink, is the point upon which they are concentrating their attention at present, and they intend to sweep us out of that colony before they undertake any serious operations on this side. I think you may as well start in the morning."
CHAPTER V
SCOUTING
"I suppose you are feeling more comfortable, Hans," Yorke said as they cantered away from the camp on the following morning.
"I don't know, Master Yorke; I was getting accustomed to the uniform, and these things feel a bit loose, as if I could shake myself out of them."
"I feel a good deal the same, Hans."
"And so you propose going to the Free State, master? I think it is just as well that Dirck Jansen is laid up with that wound you gave him; if he hadn't been, I am sure he would have mounted and ridden to join Steyn's men directly war was declared, and it would have been very bad if you had run against him."
"Very bad indeed, though I did not think of him at all. Yes, it is unfortunate now that I am known to so many of the Dutch farmers round Richmond and Brakpoort. I should say a good many of them will have joined the enemy. I don't suppose they ever noticed me very particularly, for I always kept out of the way as much as possible when they came, as I could not put up with their abuse of the English; still, some of them might recognize me. There is one thing, I always wore the shooting suits that I brought out from home; and these Dutch clothes I bought at Cape Town, when I knew the work I might have to do, have altered my appearance a good deal. I wish now that I had thought of buyingthree or four of those wisps of long hair that one sees in the hairdressers' shops there; if I had fastened them inside my hat, so as to fall down all round on to my shoulders, it would have altered my appearance, just as cutting your hair short has changed you. I should have looked like a rough young Dutch farmer from one of the country districts."
They rode on a little farther without speaking, and then he went on suddenly:
"I have an idea, Hans—our horses' tails are about the same colour. We might very well cut off about nine inches; that would give plenty of hair for our purpose. The only trouble would be fastening it into one's hat. We will stop at farmhouses as we go along, and when we get to an English settler's I will borrow a needle and thread from his wife. I will take out the inside lining of the hat, sew the hair in all round, except just in front, and then sew the lining on to it. That will keep it all tight."
Hans laughed.
"It will make you look very much like what I was before I visited the barber. No one would recognize you."
The third house at which they stopped they found to be an English settler's. As they rode to the door, they were in the usual hospitable way asked to come in and have something to eat.
"I am English like yourself," Yorke said, "and am serving as an officer with the force at De Aar, and I am going scouting to gather news of any movement on the other side of the Orange River. I may cross and go farther, but as I have been living for some time near Richmond, I may run against some of the rebel Dutch who have gone to join them, so I want to disguise myself."
"Come in, sir; we will do anything we can. When I saw you riding up, I certainly took you both at first for Dutchmen, but I see now that you are far more clean and fresh-looking than they generally are."
"Have many Dutch joined them from the colony?"
"Not so many about here; but farther on they say a good many have gone from Colesberg and that district. But most of them are waiting for the Boer advance, then I think the greater portion of them will join; from all I hear, it is an arranged thing, and the Boers reckon confidently on being joined everywhere by their own people. I am going to start to-morrow for De Aar, and shall sell all my cattle there, for if the Boers come, they will be sure to carry them all off. I hear the commissariat are buying them up for the use of the troops, and are giving fair prices for them, so I shall be no loser by it; and I shall sell my horses to them also. I have not got many sheep, but what I have I shall get rid of, then we will shut up the house, put the best part of our belongings into a waggon, and travel down quietly to Port Elizabeth, and wait there till the business is over, and if we find it likely to last, we shall go home for a holiday. It is fifteen years since we came out here, and we have been talking of going to see the old folk for some time, so if I get a fair price for the animals, it would suit us very well."
They were now in the house, and after taking a cup of coffee and some cold meat and bread, Yorke explained what he wanted. The colonist's wife was much amused at the idea, and undertook at once to do the sewing. Armed with a large pair of scissors, Yorke cut off about ten inches of the horses' tails. While he had been doing this, the woman had cut the lining out from the hat. The horse-hair was then distributed equally round it, and she was about to begin sewing it in when her husband said: "Wait a bit, Jenny; I will put my glue-pot on the fire. The glue will hold the hair better than any amount of sewing, and if a bit happened to work out, it would look very awkward."
"That would be capital," Yorke said. "I had my doubts whether sewing would be sufficient, but there is no fear that glue will fail to hold."
Accordingly the glue was heated, and a band of it two inches wide laid on round the inside of the hat. Then thehair was pressed into this, and the lining sewn in its place again. Yorke put on his hat, and, looking in a glass, joined in the hearty laughter of Hans and the colonist. The appearance of the hair was perfectly natural, as it fell on to the collar of his coat in thick masses.
"It is capital," the man said. "I am sure no one would suspect that it was not real, except that, if they looked into it, they might think it was coarser than usual; but it is just the way many of the Boers wear their hair, and it certainly changes your appearance altogether. Your face might be all the better for being a little more dirty, but it is sunburnt, and will pass very well; only, you will have to bear in mind never to take off your hat."
"I think I shall remember that," Yorke replied. "The Dutch farmers seldom do take off their hats even indoors."
"I don't think that even Dirck Jansen would recognize you, Master Yorke," Hans said, "after always seeing you in what you call your Norfolk jacket and short gray breeches and stockings. He would not know even your figure. You used to look slim, but in that rough coat, fitting so loosely, your big trousers, and high boots, you look different altogether. I am sure that if I had met you, without knowing that you had disguised yourself, I should not have recognized you."
"You would look all the better for having your eyebrows darkened a little," the woman said. "Your hair is much darker, and that would help to change your expression."
The farmer found a cork, and after burning it, darkened Yorke's eyebrows and eyelashes, thereby greatly altering the expression of his face.
"I will put that in my pocket," Yorke said, taking the cork, "then I can touch my eyebrows up from time to time as it wears off."
After many thanks to his host and hostess, he again mounted with Hans, and rode off, feeling confident now that he could mix with the Boers without fear of detection. Twodays were spent in following the river on the line that he had been directed to take, and questioning the Kaffirs, of whom several bands were found living in little huts on its banks. They had seen no parties of men, nor, although news travelled fast among the natives, had they heard of any large gathering. On arriving at Zoutpans Drift they saw four Boers on the other side, evidently placed there as patrols. Yorke did not hesitate, but went boldly across.
"Where do you come from?" one of the men asked in Dutch, entertaining no doubt whatever that he was a young Boer farmer come to join.
"Our farm is a few miles from Richmond. I hope we are in time for the fighting. Has it begun yet?"
"Not here, though there have been a few shots fired round Kimberley. But a big force is going down by Van Reenans Pass to help Joubert drive the Rooineks into the sea."
"That is just the job I should like to join in."
"Well, I expect you will be in time. By now, no doubt, they will have finished with the Rooineks at Dundee. Then they will wipe out those at Ladysmith, and after that it will be an easy job, for there are no soldiers to speak of at Maritzburg. We shall make an end of them all this time, and it will be Africa for the Africanders, and no English allowed here. Another party will be crossing at Bethulie in a day or two. All our people in that district are ready to join as soon as they do so; but there won't be any fighting there, for there are very few troops at Port Elizabeth, and I expect they will embark in their ships directly they hear that we are coming. What are they doing out your side?"
"Not much at present. I hear a talk that more troops are coming out; but it is a long way off, three weeks' voyage, I heard."
"As much as that?" the other said in surprise; "I thought England was close to the Cape. I am sorry to hear that, for I had made up my mind that after we had driven them out from here, we should go and take their country, just as theyhave tried to take ours; there would be good pickings for us all."
"Grand pickings," Yorke agreed.
"Well," the other went on, "I suppose we can get ships. France and Russia and Germany are all going to join us, and will be glad enough to arrange with us to send ships if we undertake to do the fighting."
"No doubt they will be glad to do so," Yorke said, "Though I am ready to fight, I do not think I should care for the voyage. They say that people who go on board ships for the first time are always ill."
"Well, we shall manage it somehow," the other answered.
"No doubt; but I must be riding on. I shall go on to Bloemfontein, and I fancy I shall join the Natal force rather than the Colesberg one. I am reckoned a good shot in my district, and it is no use having a rifle and bandolier if one is not going to use them."
So saying he touched his horse with his heel and rode off. Hans had been talking with the others.
"Why have you cut your hair off?" one asked.
"Because it will save trouble," Hans replied, "and besides it is cooler, and we shall have it hotter down in Natal than it is here; my hat, too, was rather tight, and it makes a lot of difference getting rid of your hair. If we had gone through Richmond, I might have got a bigger hat there, and let my hair stay on. As it was, it was easier to cut it off and have done with it."
Yorke had told Hans to talk as much as possible, while he himself said no more than was necessary. No one could doubts for a moment that his follower was what he looked, and his being so would divert any suspicion from himself. They slept that night at Fauresmith. The little town was crowded with men who had come in in obedience to orders. After some difficulty they secured a room and then went out and mingled in the throng. It was easy to see that there was considerable difference of opinion among the men. Somewere noisy and boastful, but the majority were undoubtedly there against their will, and when these gathered quietly together angry words were spoken against Steyn, who had, without the consent of the great body of burghers, plunged the country into war and caused them to be dragged from their homes and families.
town
THE LITTLE TOWN WAS CROWDED WITH MEN.
"We have no quarrel whatever with Britain," one said, "and she has never interfered with us in the slightest. Englishmen have always been welcome among us. We have nothing to do with the Transvaal quarrel. Why shouldn't the Uitlanders have a vote, as our people have in Natal and Cape Colony? Kruger has been working for it for years, and if—as he says, and those fellows who are shouting over there think—we can drive all the British out, it is the Transvaal people who will have all the power. We know how Kruger's gang has piled up money by monopolies. If the British go, it is we who will have to pay the taxes, and if there is to be any change, I would rather a thousand times come under British rule than under the Transvaal."
"You are right, Friedrich," another said. "If they had not said I should be shot if I did not come with them I should not be here to-day. They have taken my son as well as me, and who is to look after the farm while I am away?"
"Besides," another put in, "if we drive the British out, who is going to keep stores? Where are we going to buy what we want? There is scarce a place that is not kept by an Uitlander. What do we know of such matters? Where are we going to buy the goods to fill the shops? Besides, it is not in our way. We are farmers and not shopkeepers. I consider it a bad business altogether, and there are many of us who would rather put a bullet into Steyn than into these Englishmen, who have done us no harm."
Yorke found that the commando was going on to Edenburg, then by train across the Orange River at Bethulie into Cape Colony, where, they were told, every Dutchman would join them, for, except in Colesberg and some other towns, therewere very few English in the district. He gathered that all the other commandos in the district were to move in the same direction, while those on the north and west were to go to Kimberley. There was no talk whatever of any large body going west. As darkness came on, the streets began to empty, some of the men going into houses where they had obtained lodging, but the majority, wrapping themselves up, law down by the side of their horses. Hans went into a store and bought some bread and cheese, for they had finished the things they had brought with them before they had crossed the river that morning.
"We will go back to-morrow the first thing," Yorke said when they had finished their meal in their room. "It is quite evident that they have no idea at present of any attack in force on De Aar. It will not do for us to cross at Zoutpans Drift; there would be no inventing a probable tale to account for our movements; and it will be a great waste of time to go down to Bethulie. There is the bridge near Colesberg, but that is a good bit out of our way, and very likely that will be guarded too. I was wrong not to have brought with me my English clothes, then I could have said that I was an English refugee from Bloemfontein, and there would have been no hindrance to our passing. As it is, I think we must make up our minds to swim the Orange River. As we came along the banks there were several places where the land sloped gradually down to the water's edge on both sides. It was the case two or three miles below the drift, and we will make for that point. We can follow the road for some distance without much risk of meeting anyone, for it is evident that the greater portion of the men have been commandeered, and the few who remain will have plenty to do on the farms. If we should have the bad luck to fall in with some small party, I can give out that I am carrying orders from the field cornet for the men at the drift to be very watchful, and if a British force is seen on the other side they are to ride off at once and bring the news here, and then telegraphit to Bloemfontein. I do not know, by the way, whether that story would not pass us across the drift. I could say that the field cornet, whose name we luckily heard, said that we could do better service at present by crossing the drift and scouting on the other side than in going on, as there was not likely to be any fighting at present, especially as the train would certainly be so full at Edenburg that he would not be able to carry on his whole commando."
Hans nodded. "All right, Master Yorke, I would rather do that than swim the river, for I never swam a stroke in my life. I am told you can cross rivers like that by holding on by saddles or horses' tails, but I have no wish to try it."
"Well, we will start the first thing in the morning, before the Boers are about. They have not a very long march before them and are not to start till eight. We will be off at daylight."
Going downstairs he told the woman of the house that he would pay her at once as he had to be off early. The horses had been fastened up in a little yard at the back of the inn, and there would be no difficulty in getting them out. Matters turned out as Yorke had hoped. The town was still asleep when they started, and although they met two or three Boers riding at full gallop to join the commando on the march, these paid no attention to them. Fortunately, at the drift, the men who had spoken to them the evening before had been relieved by others.
"Who are you, and where are you going?" one of the men asked.
Hans as usual acted as spokesman. "We are going scouting on the other side. Field Cornet Hatjens said that the train from Edenburg would not be able to carry all his commando, and that some will stop at Fauresmith for another day or two. As we said we wanted to be doing something, he ordered us to ride here and scout towards the railway, and see if any trains with Rooineks were going north, and especially if guards are stationed along the line. I don'tsuppose we shall find out much, but it will be something to do, and we shall have time, I expect, to join the others before they start. If we get any news it will be telegraphed from Fauresmith to Bloemfontein." Then, as if no further parley was necessary, they rode on into the water and were soon on the other side.
It was a long day's ride to De Aar, but they got there late in the evening, and Yorke went at once to the colonel's tent to report.
"Can I come in, sir?" he said as he reached the opening of the tent.
"Certainly, Harberton. Hullo!" he broke off as the light fell upon Yorke's face. "Why, what have you been doing to yourself? I recognized your voice at once, but if you had not spoken I certainly should not have known you."
Yorke took off his hat.
"A wig!" the colonel exclaimed. "Where on earth did you get hold of it?"
"It is horse-hair, sir," Yorke replied, handing him the hat to be examined. "I thought it possible that I might be recognized by some of the Dutch who knew me when I was at the farm, so I cut a good bit of hair off both of the horses' tails, and got an English colonist's wife to make the hat up as you see."
"An excellent plan," the colonel said, examining it. "Naturally, it is coarser than it ought to be, but many of the Boers have very coarse hair, and the difference would not be observed in a casual inspection. It would certainly pass excellently after dark."
"It passed well yesterday at Fauresmith."
"At Fauresmith!" the officer repeated in surprise.
"Yes, sir. Finding that I could obtain no intelligence of any kind this side of the river, we crossed at Zoutpans Drift and went into Fauresmith, which was full of Dutch, a commando having assembled there. We mingled with them two or three hours and no one paid the slightest attention to us."
"You have done well indeed; but before you tell me what news you have gathered, I will point out to you that no doubt these men were all bent on discussing the work upon which they were going to be engaged, and would scarce give a casual glance at a stranger, and that although your hair might pass unnoticed there among them, it would hardly be so were you entering any place where you might be observed with suspicious attention. I think that the idea of a wig is an excellent one, and I should advise you to write down at once to Major Mackintosh, and ask him to go to the cleverest hairdresser in Cape Town and get him to make a wig imitating the long hair worn by the Dutch. Say that it is of the utmost importance that it should be as indistinguishable from the real thing as possible, as your life might depend upon its being undetected. He had best send it up directed to me, as you might be away."
"I will do so, sir. I should not generally wear it, for most of the men I saw at Fauresmith had their hair quite as short as mine; many of them had almost a close crop. As we get farther north the chances of my meeting any of the men from round Richmond would grow smaller, so there would be no occasion to alter my appearance; and there would always be some danger of the wig going wrong. Still, I will certainly get one; it could be wrapped up very small, and if I should get into a mess, and they were hunting for me, it would change my appearance altogether if I could slip it on."
"It certainly would do so; but I do not think that you will be called upon to go in disguise when we once move on. We shall, of course, then have scouting parties ahead, and we shall get information from the Kaffirs, and sometimes, perhaps, from well-disposed colonists. And now, please tell me all about your journey, and what you have discovered.
"That is most satisfactory news—most satisfactory. This is the most important point at present. There can be no doubt that in a day or two all communication with Kimberley will be cut off, and this place will become the base of ouradvance for its relief. An immense amount of stores must be collected here before we can move forward. No doubt small bodies of Boers will be hovering about, but they are not likely to make an attack; and indeed I doubt if any force could do so successfully. Still, it is a great thing not to be obliged to spend half our strength on erecting strong earth-works, and to feel that we can work in security. At the same time, I am sorry that they are evidently going to invade the colony south of the Orange River. From what I have heard, the Dutch population round Colesberg, Steynsburg, and Stormberg are likely to join them almost to a man. The country is mountainous, and it will be difficult to drive them out of it.
"Round Aliwal North a considerable portion of the population is British. They may be able to hold their own; but if they cannot do so, they are sure to suffer heavily at the hands of the Boers, who will certainly combine plunder with patriotism. Among them there are a considerable number of Irish and American Irish, Germans, French, and Hollanders, adventurers of the worst kind, whom high pay and the hope of plunder have attracted, together with a miscellaneous riff-raff of the lowest class from the mining centres. The country Boers will be rough and vindictive enough, you may be sure, but this foreign scum will be infinitely worse; still, I have no doubt some of the troops as they arrive will be sent on to Port Elizabeth, and will, we may hope, be able to make head against them.
"By the way, we had news yesterday that Penn Symons had defeated them at Dundee, though with heavy loss on our side; he himself is mortally wounded. General White doubts whether that force will be able to maintain itself, as the Boers are closing in all round him, and the line of railway from Ladysmith is already cut. The Boers have a tremendous advantage in being all mounted men, and, living as they will do on the country they pass through, they will be unencumbered by supply trains, and will move three feet to our one.The more I see of it, the more I feel that we have a troublesome and difficult job on hand."
The letter to Major Mackintosh was at once written and sent off by the train starting that evening, together with one from the colonel, stating the information that he had gained—thanks to the daring and enterprise of Mr. Harberton, who had in disguise entered the Orange Free State and gathered the intelligence he now sent from the men of the Boer commando at Fauresmith.
Although Yorke had been absent but a few days, the changes at De Aar were wonderful. Never even in the days of the gold fever in California was so great a transformation effected in so short a time. De Aar had grown from a little village of some forty houses, two or three shops, a church and school, with a little camp, into a great military centre. Captain Mackenzie of the Royal Artillery was in charge of a separate camp, which grew daily. Here in a large kraal he had upwards of a thousand mules and as many horses, all of which had been broken in and trained for military service.
Not far away was the Army Service camp. Here were men capable of every kind of work that could be demanded—carpenters, wheelwrights, railway men, painters, plasterers, saddlers, and artificers of all sorts. Aided by Kaffirs working under their direction, camps and sheds were erected as if by magic, and in a couple of days a street of corrugated iron stores would spring into existence on the veldt. There was already a medical camp, with its Red Cross flag. The Yorkshire regiment had come up, and was under canvas on the other side of the railway. The Kaffir camp was also a canvas town, and here natives of many tribes, Basutos, blacks from Cape Town, mule-drivers and transport men, were clothed and fed. Breastworks had been erected by the troops and Kaffirs upon the hills around, and redoubts thrown up on the plains.
On the morning after Yorke's return the colonel said to him: "I do not see any work to which I can put you here,Mr. Harberton. After what you have done I think you will be far more useful in scouting than in any other way. I have been thinking the matter over, and have come to the conclusion that you cannot do better than get some Kaffirs to act under you. I will give you an order on the head of their department to hand over a score of them to you. You can pick your men. They must, of course, be active and intelligent fellows; and although you speak a little of their language, it would be better to pick out some at any rate who understand English or Dutch. Your friend Grimstone, whose wife made your wig, has just come into camp with three or four hundred cattle and a number of horses and ponies. He is at present in the supply camp arranging the sale of his cattle. Some of his horses are too light for transport purposes, but they are, like the Basuto ponies, rough and hardy.
"Captain Mackenzie will no doubt buy all the animals suitable for his purpose, and I will walk across with you to his camp and get him to buy twenty ponies for your men. In this way you will be able to cover a considerable extent of ground, and give notice of any party of Boers who may ford the Orange River—for I hear that the water is sinking fast, and no doubt it can soon be crossed at many points besides the ordinary drifts. You would always be able to buy a sheep for the men, for although the English colonists are rapidly coming in, of course the Dutch are remaining. The men must carry ten pounds of flour apiece; and if they have plenty of mutton it will last them for a week."
Yorke was delighted with the offer, indeed nothing could have suited him better; and after going with the colonel and arranging for the Kaffirs and ponies, he went to have a chat with his friend the colonist.
"I am glad to see that you got back safely," the latter said. "Did your disguise pass you all right?"
"Admirably. I went straight into the middle of a commando at Fauresmith, and learnt all that there was to learnwithout exciting the slightest suspicion. I hope you are doing well with your cattle."
"Excellently. I am getting a much better price for them than I could have obtained a month ago—more, indeed, than at the best of times; and I am told that all my heavy horses will be bought on good terms as remounts, but that the smaller ones are too light for this sort of work. I shall try and sell them to one of the Dutch farmers, but I can't expect to get much from them; in fact, I expect I shall almost have to give them away."
"Colonel Pinkerton has just made an arrangement by which you will get a fair price for twenty of them, if you have as many, for use by a score of Kaffirs who are at work under me as scouts. I don't suppose he will give you a high price for them; but at any rate he will pay you more than you would get from the Boers, who would know that you must take anything that they chose to offer."
"That is good news indeed. I am sure that I should not have got more than a pound a head for them, and they are worth from seven to ten pounds. If they will give me seven apiece all round I shall be delighted."
This was, indeed, the price that Yorke heard later in the day was paid for them.
On leaving Mr. Grimstone, Yorke went among the Kaffirs and picked out twenty active men, all of whom spoke Dutch. They had all been clothed in blue frocks and trousers, and when they had been handed over to him he was well pleased with their serviceable appearance; in the afternoon he obtained the ponies from the remount department. The Kaffirs were in the highest glee at exchanging hard labour for work of a kind most congenial to them. Saddles were not necessary, nor were there any to spare, but Yorke obtained a couple of hides from the commissariat and the natives cut them into strips, folded up their blankets and placed them on the ponies' backs, using bands of raw hide as saddle-girths.With other strips they manufactured loops to act as stirrups, rough bridles, and reins.
"Now, Hans, I shall promote you to the position of sergeant," Yorke said that evening. "Your only duty will be to look after the fellows generally, to bargain with the farmers for food, and to see that the blacks obey orders when we are camping."
"Very well, Master Yorke, I will do my best. I shall be glad to be right away from this camp; the dust here is awful. And, having nothing to do while everyone else is at work, I quite long to be a Kaffir and do something."
"I did not know you were so fond of work, Hans."
"I didn't know that I was either," Hans said with a grin.
"But one could always sleep at the farm when there was nothing else to do; it is too hot in these canvas tents for that. And when everyone else is at work I do not like to be loitering about all day. Already three or four officers have asked me who I was and what duty I was employed on, and seemed to think that I had no right to be here, and that I was of no use."
"Well, we shall have plenty to do for the next month, and, I hope, beyond that."
The heat and dust were indeed terrible at De Aar. The weather was trying and changeable, the sun was intensely hot, and a bitterly cold wind often blew. Sometimes a dust-storm would burst over the camp, covering everything with a thick coat of red dust. This would be succeeded by a heavy thunder-shower.
The men drew their rations of flour the first thing in the morning, together with some bags of forage for the horses, and at seven o'clock Yorke and Hans mounted, and after ordering them to follow him four abreast, left the camp.
The Kaffirs needed no instruction from him in the art of scouting, it was born in their blood, and they had been taught as boys among their tribes, before they drifted away South as drivers of bullock-carts or in other capacities. Oncethere, and liking the life of loafing vagabondage, with just enough work to keep them from starving, they had remained until high wages were offered, and their instinctive love of warfare tempted them to take service with the army. Two miles away they were halted, and Yorke, who had bought Baden-Powell's book on scouting at Cape Town and had studied it diligently, told them that they were now to separate, and were to practise scouting among the low hills in front.
"You must bear in mind," he said, "that the great object is to discover the presence and strength of an enemy and the direction in which they are approaching, without letting them know that they are observed. You must never show yourselves against the line on the top of the hill, as, were you to stand up with the sky behind you, you could be seen for a very long distance. Half of you will go to the right and half to the left. I shall stop here for an hour and watch you at work; then I shall move straight forward. When you see me do so you will descend from the hills and join me as I pass between them. Some of you may be too far off to meet me there, but you will see our tracks and will follow us till you overtake us. You had better remain here with me, Hans, and watch them at work."
"I take it," Hans said, when the natives had started, "that scouting for an enemy is the same sort of thing as crawling up to a herd of deer, except that the deer are a good deal sharper than the men; you can approach men from either side, while with deer you have not much chance to get near them unless the wind blows from them towards you."
"That is so, Hans. The Boers' eyesight is sharp enough, but they have not the power of smell. But if you were stalking them it would be best always to try to come up against the wind, for although they could not smell us, their horses might do so and show signs of uneasiness. Well, we have stalked a good many deer together, and I fancy it will help us a good deal with our work here."
Dismounting, he went with Hans on to an eminence and stood watching the Kaffirs through his field-glass. He saw that, as they passed the first small eminence, one man separated himself from the rest, rode up some distance, and then leaving the horse, ran up until nearly at the top, when he threw himself down and crawled forward with a zigzag movement, taking advantage of the cover of rocks and sage-bushes. The next hill was wider and longer, and two or three men turned off; beyond that he could not perceive their movements. The same thing was going on on the other flank.
"They will do splendidly," Yorke said, turning to Hans. "But when they start scouting in earnest, and want to get up anywhere near the Boers, they will have to take off those blue clothes of theirs; their own skin won't show as much on the sand and rocks as those clothes will."
After waiting for an hour they mounted and rode slowly forward. They were joined as they passed through a dip in the sand-hills by five men from one flank and four from the other; there was not time for those who had gone farther to get back. The party rode on slowly, and were gradually overtaken by the others. All reported that they saw no signs of the enemy. They were again sent forward to search hills to the front, those who had before gone to the farther hills this time taking those nearer. So the work continued all day, and in the afternoon they halted at a deserted farmhouse, where they passed the night, four Kaffirs being thrown out as patrols. Yorke had no fear of being surprised, but thought it as well to accustom the men to behave as if an enemy were near. For a week the work continued, being now carried on more in earnest, as they were near the river. As the colonel had suggested, their scouting was farther south than Yorke had before been.
"You know," he had said, "that there is no idea at present of their crossing the Orange River between Zoutpans Drift and Philippolis, so you had better watch the line between Seacow River at its junction with the Orange to Hanover, asit is across this line that bands that had crossed at Bethulie Bridge or Norvals Pont into Cape Colony might advance west to cut the railway between De Aar and Richmond Road station."
The country was very hilly here, and the Kaffirs were divided into parties of two, each having his appointed station. One was always to remain at the look-out, the second to scout down to the river, and when required, to fetch provisions from the farmhouse, which served as Yorke's head-quarters.
CHAPTER VI
THE ADVANCE
The work was carried on steadily. The Kaffirs used their ponies only to carry them to the point at which they commenced work. Here they would be left while the natives proceeded on foot, scouted all day, returning to their mounts late in the afternoon, and generally arriving at the farm as the evening was closing in. For this work they had entirely given up the clothes with which they had been furnished, and went about in the scanty attire worn by Kaffir boys on a farm, or in the ragged garments in which they had been engaged. Thus they were able to obtain information from the Kaffirs at the farms, pretending either to have come from the little native communities settled on the river bank, or to have left the Orange Free State because of the troubles, and to be on the look-out for work.
All that could be learned, however, was that the Boers who had crossed the Orange River were either making south through the mountainous district near Stormberg and Steynsburg, or were moving towards Aliwal North. They were being largely joined by Dutch sympathizers, and the farms of the British settlers were being everywhere looted.
After a fortnight of this work, Yorke was recalled to De Aar. The troops from England had been pouring through. The first skirmish had taken place. The mounted infantry of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, the Northumberland Fusiliers, and the North Lancashire, with the 9th Lancers, seven hundred in all, had gone some twenty miles along the railway to the Orange River Station, and come in contact with a strong Boer commando. There was a skirmish, two officers were killed, and two others and two privates wounded.
Already guns, waggons, the soldiers' belts, and even their guns had been painted khaki to match the uniforms. The officers, too, were in khaki, but the emblems of their rank, and above all, their swords, had marked them out, and the Boer sharp-shooters directed their attention specially to them.
"You are to go up at once to Orange River station," the colonel said. "I spoke about you and your little corps of Kaffir scouts to Lord Methuen as he passed through here yesterday. He has already a body of two hundred mounted colonials for scouting work; but on my pointing out to him that your Kaffirs could pass anywhere, and obtain information from their countrymen in the heart of the enemy's country without exciting suspicion, he said the idea was an excellent one, and ordered me to send you on at once. You will report yourself to him personally on your arrival at Orange River. You must go by road; the railway is entirely occupied by the troops going up."
Delighted at the order, Yorke, after an hour's halt to rest the ponies and draw rations, started, and rode as far as Hout Kraal siding. There he halted for the night, and the third day rode into Orange River Station at twelve o'clock. He had no difficulty in finding Lord Methuen's quarters. The general, a handsome soldierly man, was standing at the door speaking to an officer, and when the conversation ended, Yorke moved up and saluted.
"My name is Harberton, sir. On arriving at De Aar yesterday, Colonel Pinkerton ordered me to come on here and report myself to you."
"Ah, you are the officer in command of a party of Kaffir scouts. He spoke highly of you, and said that you had crossed the Orange River in disguise and obtained valuable information from a Boer commando you mixed with. It certainly seemed to me that you and your men might do valuable service. Our scouts can only tell us what they see, whereas your Kaffirs can go anywhere and obtain information from the natives, while your speaking Dutch will enable you to pass as a Boer. You yourself know something of Kaffir also?"
"Yes, sir."
"They have horses?"
"Yes, sir; but they only use them till they get to a point where they really begin to scout. Then they knee-halter them and start on foot, and are absent perhaps many hours before they return. The ponies enable them to cover a much larger extent of ground than they could were they to start in the first place on foot."
The general nodded. "We shall not start for another three or four days, Mr. Harberton, but I shall be glad if you will be off to-morrow morning on a reconnaissance. The other day the Boers were not met with on this side of Belmont; I wish to ascertain whether the country is still completely clear of them to that point, and if possible, what force they have at Belmont. You will report yourself now to the quartermaster-general, who will assign you a tent and a spot where your Kaffirs can picket their ponies. They had better not take them with them to-morrow, as they would be much more conspicuous to the Boer scouts than if the men went on foot. You may as well, by the way, take four horses on to the point where you yourself decide to stop. Your men will, of course, return to you every evening, and you will send one off each day with your report of what you have learned. A week's rations will be issued to you. Oh, here is Major Rimington!
"Major," he said, as the officer came up, "this is Mr. Harberton, who commands a small body of Kaffir scouts, who will be more useful in obtaining information than your men can be, as they can pass anywhere and pick up news from the local Kaffirs. He will be generally away, but as he is quite alone, I shall be glad if you will allow him to be attached to your corps while he is with us. He has already made one dangerous expedition in disguise. He is, I hear, an old Rugby boy, but has been out here long enough to speak Dutch fairly and to talk a little Kaffir."
"With pleasure, sir. We will make him at home and look after him. If you will wait a few minutes, sir, while I speak to the general, I will take you off with me."
Saluting Lord Methuen, Yorke walked away a short distance greatly pleased with his reception. He was soon joined by Major Rimington.
"Now, have you anywhere to go before you come to our camp?" the latter asked.
"I have to go to the quartermaster-general's to get him to assign a spot where the ponies of my men can be picketed, and to obtain an order for them and myself for a week's rations, as we start out to-morrow, and also to get a tent."
"It will be of no use your getting that till you come back; we are not very closely packed. Anyhow, you can have a shake-down for the night. When we once move forward there will be no coming back here, and it would be absurd to have all the trouble of getting a tent and putting it up, and taking it down and handing it over the next morning. Have you a servant?"
"Yes, sir. I have a Dutch lad, a very good fellow, who acts as my servant and sergeant."
"Then he had better draw his rations and yours, and look after you. I shall be glad if you will share my tent for to-night."
The arrangements were soon made, and the quartermaster-general also gave an order on the officer looking after thenative labourers, to tell off two Kaffirs to take care of the horses of the party until they returned. Then Yorke went with Major Rimington to the camp of his regiment, and was introduced to his officers. Two or three of these were already acquainted with Yorke, having lived at the same hotel at Cape Town.
"You are just in time for lunch," the major said. "I do not expect we shall get any more regular meals for some time."
They sat down in the open air at a rough table constructed of planks placed on empty barrels, and boxes, the latter being also used for seats. The meal was a pleasant one; everyone was in high spirits at the thought that the period of inaction was nearly over, and that in a few days they would be advancing to the relief of Kimberley. There was no stint of food, as, in addition to the ordinary rations, they had brought up with them two or three cases of preserved meats and wine, and as these could be taken on no farther there was no motive for being saving with them. The officers were a fine set of young men. All were colonials of good family, and the men were all strong and hardy young fellows. They were to act not only as scouts, but as guides to the army, and there was scarcely a square mile in the colony but was known to one or other of them. Unlike the regulars, the officers had already done away with everything that would distinguish them at a distance from privates, their belts were khaki colour, and they carried carbines instead of swords, in addition to their revolvers.
After the meal was over, the party broke up, the officers going to look after the men and horses. The major said: "Come into my tent, Harberton, and tell me how you come to speak Dutch so well, and how you got up this corps of yours."
The major lit his pipe and seated himself on a box, which—with the exception of a bed on the ground, two other boxes which served as a writing-table, and another kept for a visitor—constituted the sole furniture of the tent. Yorketook the spare box, and gave a sketch of his history and doings to the major.
"You have done well indeed," the latter said when he had finished. "It was a thousand times better to come out here and fight your way, than to be hanging about waiting for something to turn up at home, and you have certainly made the best of your time. Many men would be years in the colony before learning to speak Dutch thoroughly. Your expedition to Fauresmith shows that you have plenty of intelligence as well as pluck, though, looking at you now, I can hardly fancy you would be able to disguise yourself to pass as a Boer."
"I shall start in that character to-morrow morning, Major, so you will have an opportunity of judging for yourself. I have no idea of stopping idle all day while the Kaffirs are at work."
"Don't be too rash, you know," the major said. "Remember that a man may do a thing half a dozen times in safety, but at the seventh some accident may occur that will betray him."
That afternoon Yorke saw a party of troopers ride in with six Boers; they had been captured in a skirmish. Two of these were men of a better class, with well-made clothes, silk neck-ties, and polished boots; the others were rough fellows, probably, he thought, men employed on some of the farms belonging to the others. He noticed that these had all cut their hair, so that it stood up rough and bristly.
"That is good," he said to himself. "I shall be able to do without that wig that the colonel handed to me when I returned to De Aar. I don't say that it might not come in useful if I had to change my disguise quickly, but it would always be dangerous. Hat and wig might both blow off in one of the thunder-storms, or get knocked off in a scuffle. Still, I am afraid I shall look too English without it. Of course there are boys of my age among them. We knowthat all over sixteen have to go on commando. However, I will first go into the major's tent and slip into my Boer clothes, and put on my wig and blacken my eyebrows, and see if he recognizes me, then I will ask his opinion how I could alter myself a bit if I gave up the wig."
He returned to the camp of Rimington's Tigers, as they were generally called—from the fact that they wore a strip of raccoon skin as a band round their slouch hats. When he had put on his disguise, he waited till he heard Major Rimington ride up and call to his orderly to take his horse, then he stepped out.
"Hullo! Who the deuce are you?" the major exclaimed, "and how dare you enter my tent when I am away? What are you doing in the camp, sir? Show me your permit."