A good many gentlemen have found
their own horses, and of course will be well mounted; but a good, sound,
country horse is all we can afford for the others; they are excellent
for ordinary work, though, of course, not so fast as yours, nor quite so
big. Your horses have all a strain of English thoroughbred blood, and if
you should at any time have to ride for it there would be little chance
of the Boers overtaking you, though some of them are very well mounted,
for the two things a Boer will spend money on, are his horse and his
rifle. And when do you start?"
"We are going to-morrow morning. I went to the station-master yesterday
evening and arranged for trucks for the horses to be attached to an
early train to Dundee. We want to get up in time to see the first of it,
and we should lose three days if we were to travel by road."
"That is the right spirit, and I wish I could go with you; but my troop
will wear a sort of uniform, Norfolk jackets and riding-breeches, and
the outfitters are so overwhelmed with orders that it will be another
couple of days at least before they are ready. Then the men must have
two or three days' drill before they start; I am still short of horses,
so I will ride on and see Duncan.
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