If
the Boers meddle with them you will be able to fight."
The prospect of a chance of being allowed to fight against the Boers
would alone have inspired the four natives to bear any amount of fatigue
without a murmur, and each day's march farther north had heightened
their hopes that they might use their guns against their old enemies. It
was on the twenty-first day after starting that, from a hill commanding
a broad extent of country, they caught sight of a train of waggons, and
knew that their journey was just at an end. They had debated which side
of the Komati river would be the best to follow, and had agreed to take
the eastern bank.
The Boer territory extended a few miles beyond this. Komati-poort was
close to the frontier. As they knew nothing as to the construction of
the bridge beyond the fact that it was iron, and were not even sure
whether it was entirely on Boer ground, or if the eastern bank of the
river here belonged to the Portuguese, they decided that at any rate it
was better to travel as near the frontier as possible, as, were they
pursued they could ride at once across the line. Not that they believed
that the Boers would respect this, but they would not know the country
so well as that on their own side, and would not find countrymen to join
them in the pursuit.
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