Chris rode up and saluted.
"I have no orders for you, Mr. King, except that when the fighting is
over you will join the cavalry in pursuit."
"Thank you, sir; I have not come for orders, but to report to you that
with Mr. Horrocks and two others, and one of our Kaffir servants, I
entered the Boer camp last night in order to ascertain their strength."
"You did!" the general exclaimed in surprise. "You hear that,
gentlemen?" he said, turning round to three or four of his staff
standing but a short distance behind him. "Mr. King and three of his
party absolutely entered the Boer camp last night to discover their
force. Well, sir, what was the result?"
"There are about four thousand of them, sir, over rather than under, and
they have six guns, all of heavy calibre. When I was there they were at
work building a thick wall some five feet high of rough stones along the
edge of the hill. It will scarcely shelter the guns, but it will provide
cover for the riflemen at the edge of the hill. There is an immense
gathering of waggons and carts--there are certainly not less than a
thousand of them--in a confused mass behind the hill. Arriving in the
dark, each seems to have gone on until it could get no farther. The
fighting men are all on the top of the hill, and between them and the
waggons are their ponies.
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