Riding
across country they met more than one farmer trekking with his cattle
and belongings towards the ferry across the Mooi river. These reported
that the Boers had overrun the whole of the country north of the Tugela,
and that some parties had already crossed at the ferry on the road
between Helpmakaar and Greytown. Fugitives had come in from the villages
on the other side, and complained that the Boers were looting
everywhere, and had driven off thousands of cattle and numbers of
horses, and had everywhere wantonly destroyed the furniture and
everything they could not carry off, in the farmhouses they visited.
A vigilant look-out was kept as the scouts advanced. On the second day
after starting they encamped on a slight elevation near Mount Umhlumba,
and early next morning they saw a party of some twenty Boers riding in a
direction that would bring them within rifle-shot of their camp. All
were at once on the alert.
"We will not go out and attack them," Chris said to the lads who were
running towards their horses. "That would mean that though we might kill
all of them, half of us would probably be shot. We will ambush them. Get
the picket ropes loose and the bridles on ready for mounting, and then
leave the horses in charge of the natives where we camped.
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