d that we were to make a big
effort next day.

Starting at 1 a.m., and steadily tramping on till 9.30 a.m., we put
twenty miles behind us. A halt was then made for a meal in rather a
pretty spot, which actually boasted of some trees sufficiently large
to afford shade, and under the foot of some well-wooded kloofs on our
right. Resuming our march, we did some two or three miles more when
word came that Colonel Hore was all right, having made a most gallant
resistance and suffered many casualties, and that we were to go back
the way we had come and march to Pretoria.

By the time we got back to our bivouac it was still early in the day,
and we had already marched twenty-five miles. Five more mules had
fallen dead, making a total of thirty-eight since we started on the
7th.

On the 18th we resumed our return journey, if return journey it could
be called, since wherever we were going it was a hundred to one
against its being the place we had come from. After a short trek we
out-spanned for breakfasts, and an order was then given that we were
to stay where we were and bivouac there for the night.

We moved to Vlakfontein next day, a distance of about sixteen miles,
and the march quite uneventful. Rumour, however, pointed to
Krugersdorp as our destination, and this must have been the exception
that proves the rule, for on this occasion rumour proved right.

Another long and equally uninteresting march of eighteen or nineteen
miles, only relieved by the arrival in hot haste of an indignant
Marquis. It appeared he had been at a farm some two miles off on our
left front, and had been offered some tea, which he had refused, and
on leaving the house had been shot at by about a dozen Boers. What it
was all about, or what he had been doing alone at this farm, and why
the Boers should not shoot at him when he withdrew, none of us could
quite make out. However, there were some Boers there, so the Colonel
fired a few long-range volleys in the direction indicated, but
declined to make a deviation with a view to reprisals.

Another eighteen miles on the 31st brought us to within about eight of
Krugersdorp. About time too, for the men's boots were giving way
badly, and scarcely one in ten had any socks.

The eight miles proved to be very long ones, however--longer than even
Irish miles--and although we had made an early start, it was noon
before we at last reached Krugersdorp for the second time. On this
occasion we halted on a h