THE ULTIMATUM
"Now, Hans," Yorke said as they dismounted in front of the hotel at
which he had stopped when he came through Cape Town, "the first thing
after you have put the horses in the stable, given them a good rub
down, and seen that they have had their feed, will be to go to some
little barber's shop and have your hair trimmed. Have it cut short
like mine. When you have done that, have a thorough good wash. You are
more particular in that respect than you used to be when I first knew
you, but there is room for a lot of improvement; and as you have made
up your mind to follow my fortune whatever it may be, it is as well,
at any rate when you join, to look clean. Here are five pounds, go to
an outfitter's and get a decent suit of clothes--clothes that will fit
you, you know, and not look as if they were made for a man fifty inches
round the waist. Look about you as you go through the streets. You
will see plenty of young Dutchmen who have come in from farms, and you
will find they wear very different-looking clothes from those you were
accustomed to. Get things of the same sort. Or--no; I think that it
would be better for you to come to me after you have got yourself tidy,
and I will go with you."
"That will be better, Master Yorke; I should never be able to choose
for myself."
"Very well, give me the money, then, less five shillings. Be sure you
tell the man to cut your hair quite short; it won't hold the dust so
much then, and will give you quite a different appearance. Don't come
back again for three or four hours. I want to learn what is doing here,
and see what openings there are. Get yourself a good meal somewhere."
The hotel was almost full, but Yorke was able to obtain a room. He
changed the clothes that he had worn and put on a suit of tweeds he
had kept for special occasions, and then went down to the dining-hall.
As he ate he listened to the conversation at the tables round him.
He learned that large numbers of British officers had been quietly
arriving, but that they were as yet in ignorance of the work they had
been sent out to perform.
At present the greater portion were waiting for orders, but it
was believed that most of them would be employed in the work of
superintending the transport on the railway, and that if war really
broke out, many would be placed in command of the bodies of volunteers
to act as scouts, which would doubtless be raised in the colonies.
Everything was still doubtful, and Yorke heard fears expressed that
Kruger would back down at the last moment. He made up his mind that
he would do nothing hurriedly; he had money enough to keep him for a
considerable time, and it was better not to make a choice that he might
afterwards regret. There were sure to be opportunities directly the
matter came to a crisis.
Among the officers were many civilians, men who had come down from
Johannesburg, and these he found were almost unanimous in their opinion
that Kruger and his advisers were all bent on war. These occupied
several tables, and the ladies with them were dressed in the latest
styles of fashion, and wore an extravagant amount of jewellery. He
guessed the husbands to be mining potentates and speculators, men whose
fortunes were already assured, and who could afford to contemplate the
worst that could happen without anxiety.
After he had finished his meal he went out, and stood on the steps of
the hotel until Hans came up. He would hardly have known him, for he
looked, for the first time in Yorke's experience, thoroughly clean, and
the change made by this, and the loss of the long unkempt hair that had
fallen to his shoulders, was almost startling. In spite of his loose,
ill-fitting clothes, he looked bright and alert, although somewhat
shamefaced at his altered appearance.
"I have done as you told me, Master Yorke, but I feel so queer that I
hardly know myself."
"That will soon pass off, Hans; and you look a hundred per cent better.
Now, let us go off to one of the stores."
Here he found no difficulty in obtaining a suit that fairly fitted
his follower. It consisted of a corded velveteen shooting jacket, and
breeches of the same material; brown stockings of a colour to match;
a waistcoat to be put on when the evening's cold set in; four flannel
shirts, and a couple of dark-blue silk neck-ties. From the same store
he procured two pairs of strong laced boots. A wide-awake of the
ordinary size completed the attire. Hans had already, at Yorke's orders
hired a room for himself, and his new purchases having been put in a
bag, he carried them off to it. Yorke remained outside for a quarter of
an hour, and Hans then rejoined him in his new clothes.
"I am quite sure, Hans, you might ride up to the house, and neither
your master nor mistress would know you, but would take you for some
young farmer stopping on his way down country to ask for a night's
hospitality."
"I don't know how I look, Master Yorke, but I don't feel comfortable at
all. There doesn't seem room for me to move in these clothes."
"Nonsense, Hans! They are loose everywhere, though not so baggy as the
others. By the way, you had better keep the others; you would be less
likely to be noticed in them if you entered a strange place than you
would be now."
"I don't care about being noticed," Hans said. "I would have as much
right to be there as anyone else."
Yorke laughed. "Well, Hans, as you have agreed to go with me--and
you know very well that my intention is, if possible, to get some job
with our army--I can see that there might be plenty of occasions when
you might be going into places with me where we should not wish to be
noticed."
A day or two after his arrival, as Yorke stood on the doorsteps
hesitating which way he should go, a young officer who was entering
stopped and looked hard at him. "Hulloa!" he said, "you are Harberton,
are you not?"
"Yes, and you are Parkinson."
"What in the world brings you out here? Why, you were quite a youngster
when I left the old school to enter Sandhurst two years ago, and now
you are nearly as tall as I am!"
"I have been out here six months."
"What have you been doing?"
"I have been at a farm up-country belonging to a cousin of my father.
As to what I have been doing, I can only say I have been riding, and
shooting, and learning to speak Dutch."
"And have you learnt to speak it?"
"Yes, I can speak it well enough to pass as a Boer in a short
conversation."
"Well, come and sit down in the garden behind the hotel and tell me all
about it. I suppose you are wanting to get up to the front--wherever
that may be--and as I came out with a good many men who will be
employed in organizing and transport, and other jobs of the sort, I may
be able to help you, if I know something about what you have been doing
out here."
Yorke told his old school-fellow why he had left Rugby and come out,
his life at the farm, and the events which had led to his leaving it
suddenly.
"You have done awfully well," Parkinson said when Yorke had finished
his story, "and you deserve to get on. Anyhow, if I can help you, I
will."
Three weeks passed quietly; as yet nothing was settled. Kruger's
replies to Mr. Chamberlain's despatches were more and more
unsatisfactory; still, the general feeling at the Cape was that he
would back down at the last moment and grant the terms of suffrage
for which the colonial secretary was pressing. The refugees from
Johannesburg were not of this opinion. "We believe he means to fight,"
said one of a group gathered in the billiard-room, "and I hope with
all my heart that he will now do so. What does it matter to us whether
he gives the suffrage to men after a five years' or seven years'
residence. In the first place, he has always broken his engagements,
and if he were to agree to a five years' suffrage, he would devise
some means for cheating us out of it afterwards; besides, not one in
twenty of the Uitlanders would take the trouble to claim it. In the
first place, they would know that the members they might return for
the few towns where they are in a majority would be swamped by the
representatives of the country districts; and in the next place, they
know that if they took the oath to the Transvaal Government, they would
forfeit the right of complaining to England of any ill-treatment, and,
whatever their position, might be commandeered and sent off to fight
Swazis, or any other savages, at a moment's notice. No, no; the thing
is begun now, and it had best be carried through, whatever it costs. It
will have to be settled some day or other, and the sooner the better."
There was a general chorus of assent.
"I only hope," another said, "that there will soon be an end of all
this talk. It has been going on for nearly a year now, and we are not
one day nearer to a conclusion. Trade is at a stand-still, and the
Boers are not fools enough to buy goods when they expect to be able to
grab them without payment, as they will do directly the war begins."
Hans had during his rides and talks with Yorke completely imbibed the
latter's opinions. As a farm servant he had previously heard little
or nothing on the subject, and was therefore quite ready to accept
his companion's views as to the dispute, especially as he was serving
under an English master against whom he had no cause of complaint.
At Cape Town he found nothing to alter his opinions. The loyal part
of the population, which formed the large majority there, were far
more outspoken than the Africanders, and the sight of the soldiers
in the streets, of the flags waving on the public buildings and on
the ships of war--the same flag as he had seen hoisted on the farm on
holidays--confirmed his feeling of loyalty, and he was prepared to
follow Yorke in whatever service he might engage.
One morning when Yorke came down to breakfast he saw that something
unusual had happened. Instead of sitting down to the meal, the
residents were standing in groups, talking excitedly. He went up to
Parkinson, who was looking delighted, and asked: "What is the news?"
"Splendid, Harberton! Kruger has sent in the most insolent ultimatum
that ever was drawn up, demanding an entire surrender of our claims and
the withdrawal of our troops, and giving only forty-eight hours for an
answer. Of course that means war. The old fox has been fooling us until
he was absolutely ready to begin. I expect he will be crossing the
frontier at once, and certainly we have no troops that can stop him out
here. There are enough in Natal to make a fight of it; but he will have
it all his own way in Cape Colony until we get troops out from England.
By that time they will have raiding parties all over the country;
and there is no doubt that they will be joined by thousands of Dutch
farmers. This ultimatum is a glorious thing. No one can say that we
forced the war upon them. It puts a stop to all these negotiations and
settles the question. It has got to be fought out now; and, thank God,
we have not got a government that will permit another Majuba surrender.
I expect we shall have hard fighting for a time."
"What would you advise me to do, Parkinson? I don't care in what
capacity I go up. I should not like to enlist in the infantry, because
I should lose the advantage that I have in being a good rider and being
able to speak Dutch. But I would enlist in any capacity in which Dutch
would be useful."
"I have no idea what any of us are going to do yet. No doubt some
general orders will come from home to-day, and I expect that most of
us will be at once sent up the line to see about forming depots, to
guard the bridges, and things of that sort. At any rate, there is not
much chance of your getting to know anything definite for a few days.
Butler and all the heads of the departments will be too busy to go
into details. Certainly one of the first steps will be to organize a
transport train; without that we should be tied to the railway."
The news had already spread through the town, and the excitement in the
streets was great. Most people believed that war must come sooner or
later, but the sudden outbreak was altogether unexpected.
There was, however, a feeling of relief that matters had come to a head
at last, and that Kruger had placed himself so hopelessly in the wrong
by his insolent defiance. Still, there was an uneasy impression that
the course he had taken was, in his own interests, a wise one. England
had been caught altogether unawares. It was true that a few thousand
officers and men had been quietly sent out during the past few months;
still, there was no force that could hope to withstand the fifty or
sixty thousand mounted men with whom the Boers could at once invade
Cape Colony and Natal. No doubt was entertained that the Orange Free
State would join the Transvaal. Steyn was known to be a most ambitious
man, and to be in the closest communication with Kruger, and among
those staying in the hotel who had come down from Kimberley, or who had
connections there, it was regarded as certain that one of the first
movements attempted by the Boers of the Free State would be to try to
capture Kimberley, which lay close to their frontier line.
In the evening Yorke again met Parkinson. "A party of Engineers are
going up to De Aar, a big depot is about to be formed there. They take
with them a lot of Kaffirs, to mark out the ground and clear it. I am
glad to hear that there are a biggish lot of stores already collected
here. Only one train a day will be open to the public, and I expect
that will soon be stopped. I tell you what I will do, Harberton. I will
take you to Colonel Pinkerton. I believe he will be going up to-morrow
to inspect the line, and probably will for the present take command all
along it. He came over in the same ship with me, and is a very good
fellow. I will tell him who you are, what you can do, and what you want
to do. At any rate, his advice will be worth having."
"Thank you very much!"
Parkinson moved away towards a party of officers talking together,
waited till they broke up, and then went up to one of them. They talked
for two or three minutes, then he turned and motioned to Yorke to come
up.
"So you are a school-fellow of Parkinson's?" the officer said.
"Yes, sir; we were at Rugby together, but he was very much my senior."
"So you want to do scouting business, to carry despatches, and
generally make yourself useful. He says that you are a good rider and
an excellent shot, and that you talk Dutch well."
"Fairly well, sir; well enough, I think, to pass as a Boer in any short
conversation."
"And you have a Dutch lad with you upon whom you can rely?"
"Yes, sir, I can rely upon him absolutely."
"There is no doubt that you would be very useful. You know a good deal
about the sentiments of the Dutch?"
"Yes, sir, at least of the Dutch for twenty miles round Richmond and
Brakpoort; they are almost to a man hostile, and I fancy from what I
heard it is the same in most districts."
"I will think the matter over; there is no hurry for a few days. If
the Boers advance to-morrow, when the time they have given us is up,
and push straight on, which would certainly seem to be their best
policy, we cannot move forward, but shall have to stand wholly on the
defensive till reinforcements arrive from home; and to take stores
up-country will simply mean their falling into the hands of the Boers.
If I go up I shall certainly be glad to take you with me. Your boy
would be invaluable in the way of obtaining information, if he is as
sharp as you say he is trustworthy, but I see a difficulty in employing
you both as civilians."
There was great satisfaction in Cape Town when the news came that
government had announced in the House that arrangements had already
been made for the instant transport of seven thousand men from India.
Two days later Yorke received an invitation to breakfast with the
colonel. He found a third person at the small table that the officer
had secured.
"This is Mr. Harberton," the latter said, "the young gentleman of
whom I was speaking to you, Major Mackintosh. Major Mackintosh is in
command of one of the local volunteer corps here, and at my request,
Mr. Harberton, he has arranged to give you a commission in his corps,
and to allow you to be seconded for service as one of my assistants.
I think that will meet all difficulties. While on service you will,
of course, receive the pay of your rank, and an allowance for horse
and forage. Your boy must also enlist in the corps, and will similarly
obtain leave to go as your servant; he will, while on duty, draw the
pay and rations of a private."
"Thank you indeed, sir," Yorke said gratefully; "and thank you also,
Major Mackintosh; this is more than I had ever ventured to hope for."
"I had the more pleasure in granting the colonel's request," the
officer said, "inasmuch as I am myself a public-school boy. I am an
Etonian, and can quite understand your eagerness to take part in this
business. I have large numbers of applications for enlistment, and
I have no doubt that as matters progress several fresh corps will
be raised. My staff of officers is nearly made up, but I have no
difficulty in granting you a commission, as when you are seconded for
other duties it will leave a vacancy, so that it is a mere matter of
arrangement. I will send in your name to-day to Sir William Butler. You
had better attend at once at the orderly room, with your Dutch servant,
to be sworn in, and then get your uniforms. I dare say you know what
they are."
"Yes, sir; I saw the corps march through the streets the other day."
"Of course you will not want a full-dress uniform, Mr. Harberton," the
colonel said; "and you will take up your civilian clothes, both those
you stand in and the dress of a Dutch farmer; and your servant will do
the same, and will, of course, dress as a farm hand when he is away on
any scouting expedition."
"Certainly, sir. I suppose I can bring my rifle with me?"
"Yes; what rifle is it?"
"A Lee-Metford, sir."
"That is right; it would be of no use taking up one that would not
carry government ammunition."
"How long have you been in the colony, Mr. Harberton?" the major asked.
"Six months, sir."
"You have done well to learn the language so quickly."
"The cousin with whom I was staying, sir, married a Dutch lady, and as
he had been out here twenty years, Dutch was generally spoken in the
house. I spent my whole time in riding and practising shooting, and I
always had this Dutch boy with me. He talks English, but we talked when
together in Dutch, as I was anxious to learn it."
"I suppose you were accustomed to ride before you came out here?"
"Yes, my father kept three horses, and bred them so that I learned to
ride as far back as I can remember."
"You left school early, for you cannot be past seventeen yet?"
"Yes, sir. My father is a clergyman, and had a good private income, but
the Birmingham and Coventry Bank, in which his money was all invested,
went to smash, and as the living was by no means a rich one, I had to
leave school. I had been invited here by my cousin, when he was in
England a year before, and it was thought that I could not do better
than to come out to him, and after being with him for a time, try to
make my own way."
"And so you left him because you thought war was coming on?"
Yorke smiled. "Not exactly, sir, though I had made up my mind to do so
if there was war; but I really left him because of a row with a Dutch
cousin of my cousin's wife. I think it was partly jealousy at my being
established at the farm, but the actual quarrel was about shooting.
He was very proud of his marksmanship, and I beat him in a trial of
skill. Two days afterwards he shot at me when I was out riding. He put
a ball through my hat, and made sure he had killed me; but I returned
the fire, and hit him. I was afraid at first that I had killed him, but
he was not dead when I came away. Fortunately, Hans, my boy, was with
me, and was able to prove that he fired the first shot; but my cousin
said that I had better leave at once, for the affair would create an
ill-feeling among his friends, and my life would not be safe. So off I
came. My cousin provided me well with money, so I thought that, before
deciding upon what to do, I would wait and see if war really broke out;
but in any case I thought of enlisting in a cavalry regiment. I might
get a commission some day, and if I didn't, a few years in the ranks
would perhaps do me good. I could buy myself out when I was able to see
some other way to earn a living."
"That was as wise a determination as you could have taken under the
circumstances," the colonel said. "A few years in the army does no man
any harm, if he is steady and well-conducted; and if well educated,
as you are, he is certain to get his stripes in a couple of years. The
life of a non-commissioned officer is by no means an unpleasant one;
and there is always a chance of getting a commission, though this is
not a very bright one, as so many young fellows who, having failed to
pass, enter the ranks with the hope of getting one some day."
Then the talk turned to the probable course of the war. The two
officers agreed that if the Boers contented themselves with holding
the passes into Natal, and threw their force, which was estimated at
fifty thousand, in five divisions, each ten thousand strong, into Cape
Colony, they could sweep the whole country up to Cape Town before any
force could arrive from England to arrest their progress, and that in
their advance their numbers would probably be doubled by recruits from
the discontented portion of the Dutch population.
"I am in great hopes that they will besiege Kimberley," the colonel
said. "Our having of the diamond mines there has always been a sore
point with the Free State, and one of their reasons for joining the
Transvaal undoubtedly is to obtain possession, which I feel sure they
will not do. Then possibly a considerable force of the Transvaal men
may knock their heads against Mafeking. It is the nearest point to
Pretoria, and it was from there that the Jameson Raid started. They may
take that. Baden-Powell, who is a first-rate man, went up to take the
command there ten days ago. He is sure to defend the place till the
last, but even if he does but hold out for a fortnight, the time gained
will be invaluable to us. Time is everything. But in any case, I fear
that it is going to be a very big job, certainly a great deal bigger
than anything we have had since the mutiny.
"If we could but get all the Boers together, fifty thousand men might
do it. As it is, we may want double that number, though I do not think
the home government has any idea that such a force will be requisite.
We made the usual hideous mistake of not being ready, and the still
greater one of allowing the Boers to obtain enormous quantities of
rifles and ammunition. When our government were first warned of what
was going on, they should have put their foot down, and told Kruger
bluntly that, as he could be arming in this tremendous manner only
for war with us, we should not allow the importation of arms into the
colony."
"They could have got them up through Lourenço Marques," the major said.
"Well, then, government should have gone a step further. They should
have told Portugal that, although we did not wish to quarrel with her,
we insisted upon her refusing to allow arms to be landed at Lourenço
Marques, that we should send a military officer as our consul there to
inspect all imports, and that we should station a ship of war there to
support him, as it would be impossible for us to allow the port to be
used as a centre through which military munitions, intended to be some
day used against us, might be passed up-country."
"But if Portugal refused, as she no doubt would, to submit to such a
high-handed action, she would probably have been supported by several
European nations--certainly by France in her present mood, possibly by
both Russia and Germany."
"In that case," the colonel said, "we should have had two alternatives:
either to fight the lot of them with our fleet, which we could do; or
else to send five thousand men up into the Transvaal to Komati Poort,
and so to prevent the arms entering from the Portuguese frontier. The
Boers were then comparatively unarmed, and if, as is likely, they had
chosen to fight, we should have had a fairly easy job. The Queen has
sovereign rights there, and it is no great stretch of sovereign rights
to quarter troops in the country. However, I have no doubt they would
have fought; after our surrender at Majuba, they thought, and still
think, themselves invincible. But the affair would have been mere
child's play to what it will be at present. It was a difficult problem,
no doubt, for a British ministry to face, but it ought to have been
faced. It was a question of grasping the nettle. With such a majority
as they have got behind them, stronger men would not have hesitated to
do so. A fire can be put out easily enough when it once starts, but if
it is left alone till it has got a big hold, there is no saying what
may happen when there is a strong wind blowing."
"Now, Hans," Yorke said, after having told the news to his follower,
"you have to do credit to yourself and me, to try and look smart when
you are in uniform, to keep those long arms of yours from swinging
about, to hold your head up, and to walk briskly and smartly."
"I will do my best, Master Yorke," Hans said with a grin; "but I don't
think I shall ever look like those soldiers I have seen walking about
the street, especially those chaps with trousers that look so tight. I
can't make out how they can sit down."
"Those are the cavalry, Hans; you won't be expected to look like them.
I fancy the corps here wear white in summer; but that is certainly not
a good colour for campaigning, and the major said that there was some
talk of dyeing them a sort of light brown, that wouldn't show the dirt,
and would not want so much washing, and, above all, would not make such
a conspicuous mark for an enemy. It is the same sort of colour as the
regular troops wear here in summer, and I expect that in a short time
they will all take to it instead of scarlet."
"Well, I don't care much how they dress me, so long as they let me go
with you, Master Yorke."
After going to the head-quarters of the corps, and being sworn in,
Yorke went to the tailor who had the contract for the uniforms. He
found that Major Mackintosh had just come in, and had ordered that no
more uniforms should be made for members of the corps until they heard
again from him, which would be the next morning, as he had summoned a
council of the officers. Yorke and Hans were, however, measured and the
tailor promised to put their uniforms in hand directly he received the
major's instructions to go on.
Yorke had been invited by the adjutant to attend the meeting of the
officers. He listened to the discussion, and, was glad to learn
that khaki drill was generally approved of as the material for the
uniforms of the corps, to be used with brown belts and accoutrements,
and wide-brimmed felt hats of the same colour as the coats. He was
introduced to the other officers by Major Mackintosh, who laughingly
told them that they must make the most of him, as Colonel Pinkerton had
requisitioned him for service.
The following morning Hans was set to work drilling with a batch of
other recruits. This was not necessary in Yorke's case, as he had for
two years been a member of the Rugby Cadet corps, and therefore knew
as much of drill as most of the officers. Thus, when in the cool of
the evening the whole corps turned out, he was able to play his new
part satisfactorily. Colonel Pinkerton had strolled down to witness the
drill. The gathering was a very motley one, for the men were not in
uniform, and all classes were represented.
"I was glad to see you knew your work," the colonel said to him on his
return. "You did not tell me that you knew anything of soldiering."
"I do not know very much, sir; but I was a member of the school corps
for two years, and we flattered ourselves we were pretty smart. Of
course many of the fellows were meant for the army, and were very keen
about it. But I think we all took a good deal of pride in drilling
well, and though I was not an officer, of course I knew where the
officers should be placed in each movement."
"Well, you will not want it much while you are with me; but when you
are among soldiers it is as well to be able to show that you know
the work of an officer. At present there is no idea whatever of the
volunteers going to the front; but there is no saying what may take
place in the course of a few weeks, if the Boers are sharp enough to
take advantage of the situation."
Three days later Yorke and Hans started with the colonel up the
line. He had two young Engineer officers with him. The colonel's two
horses and Yorke's were taken in a truck under the charge of Hans and
the colonel's soldier servant. Trains of provisions and stores for
Kimberley and Mafeking were being sent up rapidly, and depots formed at
several points along the line. It had not been deemed prudent to send
them very far until the plans of the Boers were apparent. The horse-box
and the carriage in which the officers travelled were detached from the
train at points that were considered important. Here they remained for
a few hours, and were then attached to another train. While the colonel
and his assistants examined the culverts and bridges, and made notes of
their relative importance, Yorke made enquiries from British farmers
as to the disposition of the Dutch population, and Hans resumed the
clothes in which he had left the farm, and, under pretext of looking
for a situation, entered into conversation with men of his own class.
The reports naturally varied a good deal. The opinion of the English
colonists was that although the Dutch sympathies might be strongly
with the Transvaal Boers, few of them were likely to take any active
steps to join them, unless they invaded the Colony in great force.
Many of the young men, however, were missing, and it was generally
believed that they had started to join their kinsmen in the Transvaal.
Many of the better class of farmers who had been often at Cape Town,
where not a few of them had received their education, were much better
acquainted with the military power of Great Britain than were the mass
of the Dutch population; and these, whatever their sympathies might
be, were of opinion that in the long run her strength must over-power
that of the Boers, and that an enormous amount of suffering and damage
would result. They admitted that they themselves had nothing whatever
to grumble at under the British flag, and acknowledged that the
government of the Transvaal treated the Uitlander population there in a
very different manner, and that had that government been ready to grant
the same treatment to them as the Dutch of Cape Colony enjoyed, there
would never have been any trouble.
"I think it all means," the colonel said one day when they were
discussing the reports brought in, "that if we thrash the Boers the
Colony will remain quiet; if they gain any big success, the greater
portion of the Dutch here will join them. But no doubt there will be
trouble in getting the trains through; it is impossible to guard such
an enormous length of line. The utmost that can be done will be to have
detachments posted at all the bridges whose destruction would cause
serious delay. We can hardly doubt that rails will be pulled up and
culverts destroyed, for this can be done by two or three men working
at night. But of course each train going up will carry a few rails and
a couple of balks of timber, tools, and three or four railway men, and
the repairs can be executed with only a very short delay."
Four days after starting the party arrived at De Aar, which had been
selected as the most favourable position as a base. At this place
a line of railway from Port Elizabeth joined that from Cape Town.
Seventy or eighty miles down the Port Elizabeth line were junctions at
Naauwpoort and Middelburg Road, the former with the main line running
up through the Orange Free State to Pretoria and Pietersburg, the
latter joining the line from East London at Stormberg, north of which
was a branch to Aliwal North, and another crossing the Orange River at
Bethulie, and joining the main Orange Free State line at Springfontein.
Whatever might be the intention of the Dutch later on, so far there
had been no attempts whatever to meddle with the railway. The waggon
trains loaded with stores went up in rapid succession, and on their way
met almost as many crowded with refugees from the Transvaal, the Free
State, and Kimberley.
Miners and store-keepers, millionaires and mechanics, were
closely packed, with little distinction of rank, and Yorke and his
fellow-officers frequently expressed their disgust that so many
able-bodied men should be flying, when on crossing the frontier they
might well have gone to Kimberley, Colesberg, and other places to take
part in the defence of the towns. The first blow had been struck. An
armour-plated train going up to Mafeking had on the 12th been fired
at with guns and derailed. Lieutenant Nesbit and the soldiers with
him had defended themselves gallantly, but had at last been obliged
to surrender. From Natal the telegrams were of a still more exciting
nature. The invasion of that colony began a few hours before the
ultimatum expired, and it was expected that the force under General
Penn Symons would be attacked in the course of a day or two.
The Loyal North Lancashires had passed them the day after they started.
Four companies had gone on to Kimberley, the rest had encamped at
Orange River station.
Many mules and trek oxen had been sent up, and large numbers of
Kaffirs, and the station at De Aar presented a busy scene. Wooden sheds
had already been erected by the Engineers, and these were being filled
with the more perishable articles, such as sugar and tea; stacks of
bags of flour and mealies, and of cases of tinned meat, were rising
in the open, while everywhere were piles of stores of all kinds lying
just where they had been thrown from the trucks on the sidings. An hour
after Yorke's arrival the colonel was occupied in fixing on a site for
a battery. This was selected on the top of a rising mound near the
station, and from this the guns, when placed in position, would sweep
the surrounding country. Tents were pitched for the party, and in these
they speedily settled down.
"Now, Mr. Harberton," the colonel said that evening, "it does not seem
to me that at present I have any occasion for your services here. We
shall trace the lines of the fort to-morrow morning; a train with four
hundred Kaffirs will arrive this evening, and we shall get to work by
breakfast time. Then one officer and a couple of the sappers will be
sufficient to look after them, while we shall attend to getting things
in readiness for the arrival of more troops. So far the railway between
this and Kimberley is still open, but it is certain that it will not
be so for long. I think you can be most usefully employed in riding
through Philipstown and Petrusville, and scouting between Zoutpans
Drift and thence to Hondeblafs River and Colesberg Bridge.
"Between these places there is, so far as I know, no ford, and we may
assume that if the Free State men cross in any strength it will be at
one or other of these points; but small parties may possibly swim the
river and attempt to cut the line north. At any rate, it is well that
we should learn what is going on, and get early information of the
movements of any of the enemy's parties. I am in hopes that no combined
advance on their part will take place till we have got our guns
mounted, for at present we are certainly not in a position to offer any
serious resistance to an attacking force. Fortunately the Free State
men are not as well prepared for a contest as the Transvaalers, and we
know by the fugitives who have come down that very many of them are
altogether opposed to Steyn's policy. Moreover, it is probable that
they will direct their first effort against Kimberley; but it is as
well to be forewarned.
"You can, of course, if you think proper, cross the Orange River in
your Dutch disguise and gather news there. We can get very little
reliable information from the fugitives, they seem to have swallowed
every wild report in circulation; and if we were to credit their
accounts we should believe that at least a hundred thousand Free
Staters--that is to say, pretty nearly every adult male--were already
under arms and on the march for the frontier. I have no faith whatever
in such reports. I believe it far more likely that, as fast as they can
be organized, a portion will march on Kimberley, but that their main
force will go down through the passes in the Drakenberg to join the
Transvaal force in Natal. That, I think, is the point upon which they
are concentrating their attention at present, and they intend to sweep
us out of that colony before they undertake any serious operations on
this side. I think you may as well start in the morning."