d north-west,
hoping to strike off the _spoor_ of Goven's column. But when after
four miles he failed to find it, he opined that he was making a detour
which, if persevered in, would not bring him to his destination by
nightfall. He therefore changed his direction to due north, and put
spurs to his horse. He was working along the inner edge of a great
veldt-basin, and getting a little uncomfortable as to his direction;
and alarmed that he saw no traces of the column, he dismounted in a
kloof, and climbed to the top of the edge of the basin. Beneath him
lay a track, standing out white against the veldt. There was just a
short breadth of veldt, and then the country became very broken and
hilly. Within two hundred yards of the spot which he had chosen for
his reconnaissance stood a small farmhouse. But it was not the
farmhouse that attracted his attention; it was a pillar of dust which
showed to the north along the track. He took out his glasses. There
was no doubt about it,--it was a body of mounted men and some
transport going away from him. They were not more than a mile away;
and if it had not been for the dust, he could almost have counted the
force. "It is De Wet," he inwardly reflected; "he is going right into
Goven's arms; and for Boers to make all that dust, they must be
travelling fast." He turned his glasses down to the south; there he
could find no sign of living thing upon the track. He was just
debating in his mind what would be the right course to pursue, when he
heard a voice behind him, "Beg pardon, sir, but them is Boers; they
have just all gone past here!" He turned round to find a British
dragoon standing stiffly to attention behind him.

_Intelligence Officer._ "Who are you? and where the devil have you
come from?"

_Trooper._ "Please, sir, we belongs to a patrol that was sent out by
Captain Charles, and we got lost."

_I. O._ "Where are the others? where are your horses?"

_T._ "I have got the three horses down in the nullah there. The
corporal and the other man are down in that farm, sir; at least that
is where they went before the Boers came."

_I. O._ "In that farm? Why, the Boers will have got them; they must
have passed quite close to the farm!"

_T._ "They did that, sir; but I never seed them get them. I expect
that they was under the beds when the Boers passed."

_I. O._ "Did you see all the Boers pass?"

_T._ "Yes, sir; there was about a thousand, two waggons, and a lot of
carts. So