ult to understand, but it ended the conference, and
Major King and his prisoner returned to camp.

Major English, whose eye had proved troublesome and kept him behind,
now rejoined the battalion, to everybody's gratification, for the
publication of Lord Roberts's army order, which took place at this
time, had made us all very proud of him and his men.

On the 5th an order was given to send out a small force, consisting of
two companies of the regiment, a pompom, and a troop of Marshall's
Horse, to a point five miles N.N.E. of the camp, in order to fill up a
somewhat big gap between General Hart and the 3rd Cavalry Brigade. 'B'
and 'G' companies, under an officer of the regiment, with Captain
Nelson, R.M.L.I., and Lieutenants Smith and Molony as subalterns, and
Lieutenant Nek of Marshall's Horse, were selected, and started as soon
as the men's dinners were finished. General Hart rode out later on,
and, catching this force up, selected a site, and gave orders to the
officer commanding it to dig himself in, promising that the pompom,
which had not turned up, should be sent on.

In the meantime the remainder of General Hart's force also started
digging, a very different state of affairs to his premeditated attack
a couple of days earlier.

The detachment sent out patrols on the morning of the 6th to see if
they could draw the enemy's fire, with strict injunctions to content
themselves with doing so and then withdraw. This they soon succeeded
in doing. On their return they passed a farmhouse, and received
information that an important Boer General was in the habit of
sleeping there sometimes. Visions of a capture of De Wet inflamed the
minds of some of the younger officers, and on the night of the 6th-7th
Captain Nelson and Lieutenant Smith, with a few picked men, made a
raid on the house. However, they found nobody but womenfolk, and
returned empty-handed.

Next day commenced our memorable pursuit. De Wet and his merry men had
slipped away over the ford bearing his own name as neatly as a
cherry-stone from between finger and thumb, and, with their heads
turned north, were to give us, and many another converging column like
us, the hunt of our lives. The regiment started at 11.30 and only
halted at dusk, some three miles from a range of hills on which rumour
said the Boers were going to stand and fight it out to the bitter end,
even if the whole British Army came against them. 'B' and 'G'
companies did not get in until