Then their conversation turned upon a point still more interesting to
the listeners. A commando had started from Barberton, a border town some
thirty or forty miles to the west, into Swaziland. A native had
mentioned to one of the Boers there that four Englishmen had passed
north. They had stopped at his chief's kraal. They were all quite young,
and had five natives with them, and three pack-horses. They had come to
shoot and see the country, they said; but they had spoken with one of
the men with them, who said that so far they had not done much hunting,
only enough for food; he supposed that they were going to begin further
on. The Boer had an hour later ridden down to Barberton with the news,
and it had been at once resolved to send off a commando of a hundred men
to search the hills, for there was a suspicion that the hunters were
British officers who had come up to act as spies.
"Our cornet had a telegram this afternoon," one of them said, "that we
were to be specially vigilant here, and we must keep a sharp lookout at
night. I don't suppose they are on this side of the river. They may be
going to pull up the railway, or blow up a culvert somewhere between
this and Barberton. Four men with their Kaffirs might do that, but they
certainly could not damage this bridge.
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