rovide for his needs. I was lucky enough in the two hours of yesterday
afternoon that were available for the purpose to light upon a cart and
team that would carry my load of forage and bully beef; and at 5 p.m. to
see the leaders harnessed in for the first time, while my faithful
Kaffir groom gathered up the reins with doubt in his eye. Of course the
leaders turned round and tried to climb up over the wheelers' heads, but
at length they came to an approximate sort of unanimity as to which pair
was to lead. Thereafter I had the fearful joy of seeing the equipage set
forth at speed down the narrow street. A policeman escaped with his life
at one corner, a cripple was snatched from death at another, a nigger
was cannoned off at a third--the proprietor of the public menace riding
diffidently behind the while, trying to look as though he had no hand in
it. But the great thing was that I had got something capable of "flying"
with the column, and I was twice hailed on the way out to know whether I
would sell the horses.

From Kimberley to Barkly (whither the forces comprising the column had
proceeded earlier in the day) the road lies through twenty-five miles
of the loneliest veldt; except at the half-way house I did not see a
human being all the way. The young moon was up, and threw the earth and
sky into sombre night colours--a purple wall of earth meeting the
spangled violet of the sky in one long line. For twenty miles of the
road there was hardly a sound save the beat of horses' feet; but
presently there stole on my ear a kind of music for which one's senses
long in this barren country--the murmur of water over stones. It was the
Vaal river, running here broad and deep, and making Barkly West a
pleasing instead of a dull place. Beside a sharp bend the lights of an
inn shone upon the road, promising rest for tired people, whether they
had four feet or two; and the promise was fulfilled.

To-day has been given up to horse-buying; the place was like a fair;
everyone who owned even the framework of a horse brought it out and
offered it for sale; and officers were competing busily for the purchase
of any decent animal. I found time to go down and listen to the
river--strange sights the water that is flowing so quietly must have
passed this morning! For one of our 6-inch siege guns was sent up to
Warrenton last night, and opened at daybreak on the Boers at Fourteen
Streams. One longs to know something of the result; but the wa