Some tea and coffee, a dozen tins of preserved
milk, and half a hundredweight of biscuits, in case of finding ourselves
at a lonely camp with no native kraals near, and we shall be all right.
Of course we will take a gallon or two of paraffin, a frying-pan, a
small kettle, and so on, and a lantern that will burn paraffin. We will
fill up our pouches with a hundred rounds of rifle cartridges and fifty
for our revolvers, and then I think we shall be ready. Now mind, the
success of our enterprise depends entirely upon your all keeping the
secret absolutely. Neither Willesden, Brown, nor Peters have friends
here to bother themselves about their absence. We are not likely to be
missed, but if any questions are asked, you can say casually that we are
off on a scouting expedition. I shall write four or five letters, with
dates a week or ten days apart, and direct them from here, and leave
them for you to post one by one to my mother. Be sure you send them in
the right order. As she will suppose that we are stopping here quietly,
and out of all harm, she won't be uneasy about me. Peters' and
Willesden's friends have gone to England, so they are all right, and
Brown's are at the Cape. You had better write two or three letters too,
Brown, to be posted a fortnight or three weeks apart.
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