"
"Now as to this other affair," Sir Redvers said, returning Colonel
Yule's letter. "You had better take this, it will be useful to you
another time. Now tell me all about it. Was it entirely your own idea?"
"I first thought of it, sir, and my three friends agreed to go with me.
I did not want a large number. We started from Maritzburg with our own
Kaffir servant, and two Zulus and two Swazis to act as guides, two
ponies, each of which carried a hundredweight of dynamite; we had also a
spare riding horse."
He then related their proceedings from the time of their start to their
arrival at Komati-poort; their failure at the bridge in consequence of
the strong guard that the Boers had set over it; and how, finding that
the main object of their journey could not be carried out, they
proceeded to wreck the station yard and its contents.
"Thank you, Mr. King," the general said, when Chris concluded by
mentioning briefly how they had ridden down to Lorenzo Marques, and
taken a ship to Durban, and come up by train. "I saw the telegram of the
accident at Komati-poort. I imagined that it was probably more severe
than was stated, but certainly had no idea that such wholesale damage
had been effected, or that it was the work of any of our people.
Pages:
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278