eyond, or we could hardly have made a successful stand
against the flames, some being quite a dozen feet in height. Allusion to
veldt fires reminds me that the last time I had to turn out to fight
one was near Johannesburg, and the man who displayed most energy in
smiting the flames with his blanket, and who came away from the charred
veldt with blackened face and hands, was our second in command, the Duke
of Norfolk.

On Friday we continued our advance, and crossed the Crocodile River.
This day we saw nothing of the enemy. Our horses have done well in the
way of forage lately. Sometimes we get bundles of oat hay out of the
barns we visit _en route_, and strap them, with armfuls of green oats
pulled from the fields, fore and aft of our saddles, till we look like
fonts at harvest festivals. Thus equipped, we would form good subjects
for a picture called "The Harvest Home." Yet, in spite of all the
feeding they have been getting, our horses are all nearly done up.

Our present troop officer is great on the _commandeer_, and very
popular. However, the other day he gave us a severe address on parade
about looting, which he wound up as follows:--"Of course, I don't object
to your taking the necessaries of life, such as oranges, fowls, ducks,
mealie flour, or the like, but (sternly) any indiscriminate looting I
shall regard as a crime."

AMBUSHED.

On Sunday (August 5th), while the folks at home were preparing for the
Bank Holiday, we Yeomen of Sussex, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Fife,
with our friends "The Roughs," were continuing to advance west in the
direction of Rustenburg. This day we passed through some of the best
wooded country I have seen out here. The trees being quite large and at
a distance very much like small oaks. At about mid-day we halted in
front of Olifant's Nek, and our signallers tried to get into
heliographic communication with the great "B.-P.," who was supposed to
be in possession. At last, after several fruitless efforts, a dazzling
dot in the pass appeared and commenced twinkling in response to ours.

"Twinkle, twinkle, helio,
What a lot of things you know."

Soon we received the order to advance. Then we were halted, "files
about," and galloping about a mile to the rear, were drawn up, and
informed that a Boer laager had been reported under a small kopje of
the Magaliesberg some distance east from the Nek, and we were to go and
investigate the matter. The first three groups of our tro