This I hoped he would do,
for he had evidently entered into the spirit of the chase, and had laid
back his ears whenever the Boers raised their voices in a yell or a
rifle was fired. They were yelling pretty hard when they passed me,
urging their horses on in the belief that the chase was almost at an
end. I heard no more of the Boers that time, for as soon as they had
gone on I ran at the top of my speed for some distance, and then broke
into a trot, and by the morning must have been thirty miles away.
"I decided to make for Standerton, for there I felt sure I should be
safe, for at that place was a considerable English population, and they
would certainly hold out. I had a Colt's rifle with me and a brace of
revolvers, for even when I went down to Leydenburg I heard that several
Englishmen had been maltreated, and one or two shot by Boers they met. I
tramped for four days, and as the attack on our troops had been made on
the 20th of December, it was now Christmas-eve. I had not ventured to go
near a Boer farm, for fortunately I had shot a springbok, and was
therefore under no trouble as to food; but on the previous day I had not
come across water, and the heat was terrible, so I felt that whatever
came of it I must go and ask for a drink.
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