"Right before us, can a man cross there?"

"No, baas,[67] you cannot!" the Kaffir answered.

"Has a man never ridden across here?"

"Yes, baas," replied the Kaffir, "long ago."

"Do baboons walk across?"

"Yes! baboons do, but not a man."

"Come on!" I said to my burghers. "This is our only way, and where a
baboon can cross, we can cross."

With us was one Adriaan Matthijsen, a corporal who came from the
district of Bethlehem, and was a sort of jocular character. He looked up
at the mountains, 2,000 feet above him, and sighed:--

"O Red Sea!"

I replied, "The children of Israel had faith and went through, and all
you need is faith. This is not the first Red Sea we have met with and
will not be the last!"

What Corporal Matthijsen thought I do not know, for he kept silence. But
he pulled a long face, as if saying to himself:--

"Neither you, nor anybody else with us, is a Moses!"

We climbed up unobserved to a bit of bush which, to continue the
metaphor of the Red Sea, was a "Pillar of Cloud" to hide us from the
English.

We then reached a kloof[68] running in a south-westerly direction, and
ascended by it, still out of sight of the English, till we reached a
point nearly half-way up the mountain. There we had to leave the kloof,
and, turning to the south, continue our ascent in full view of the
enemy.

It was now so precipitous that there was no possibility of proceeding
any further on horseback. The burghers had therefore to lead their
horses, and had great difficulty even in keeping their own footing. It
frequently happened that a burgher fell and slipped backwards under his
horse. The climb became now more and more difficult; and when we had
nearly reached the top of the mountain, there was a huge slab of granite
as slippery as ice, and here man and horse stumbled still more, and were
continually falling.

We were, as I have said, in view of the enemy, and although out of reach
of the Lee-Metfords, were in range of their big guns!

I heard burghers muttering:--

"Suppose the enemy should aim those guns at us--what will become of us
then? Nobody can get out of the road here!"

I told them that this could only be done if the English had a Howitzer.
But I did not add that this was a sort of gun which the columns now
pursuing me were likely enough to possess.

But nothing happened. The English neither shot at us, nor did they
pursue us. Corporal Matthijsen would have said that they were more
ca