we were still on the wrong side of the river and that we must be between
the Boer and the English artillery. Except for that, our knowledge of
our geographical position was a blank, and we accordingly "out-spanned"
and cooked more bacon. "Outspanning" is unharnessing the ponies and
mules and turning them out graze, and takes three minutes--"inspanning"
is trying to catch them again, and takes from three to five hours.

We started back over the trail over which we had come, and just at sunset
saw a man appear from behind a rock and disappear again. Whether he was
Boer or Briton I could not tell, but while I was examining the rock with
my glasses two Boers came galloping forward and ordered me to "hands up."
To sit with both arms in the air is an extremely ignominious position,
and especially annoying if the pony is restless, so I compromised by
waving my whip as high as I could reach with one hand, and still held in
the horse with the other. The third man from behind the rock rode up at
the same time. They said they had watched us coming from the English
lines, and that we were prisoners. We assured them that for us nothing
could be more satisfactory, because we now knew where we were, and
because they had probably saved us a week's trip to Cape Town. They
examined and approved of our credentials, and showed us the proper trail
which we managed to follow until they had disappeared, when the trail
disappeared also, and we were again lost in what seemed an interminable
valley. But just before nightfall the fires of the commando showed in
front of us and we rode into the camp of General Christian De Wet. He
told us we could not reach the bridge that night, and showed us a
farm-house on a distant kopje where we could find a place to spread our
blankets. I was extremely glad to meet him, as he and General Botha are
the most able and brave of the Boer generals. He was big, manly, and of
impressive size, and, although he speaks English, he dictated to his
adjutant many long and Old-World compliments to the Greater Republic
across the seas.

We found the people in the farm-house on the distant kopje quite
hysterical over the near presence of the British, and the entire place in
such an uproar that we slept out in the veldt. In the morning we were
awakened by the sound of the Vickar-Maxim or the "pom-pom" as the English
call it, or "bomb-Maxim" as the Boers call it. By any name it was a
remarkable gun and the most