SCOUTING
"I suppose you are feeling more comfortable, Hans," Yorke said as they
cantered away from the camp on the following morning.
"I don't know, Master Yorke; I was getting accustomed to the uniform,
and these things feel a bit loose, as if I could shake myself out of
them."
"I feel a good deal the same, Hans."
"And so you propose going to the Free State, master? I think it is just
as well that Dirck Jansen is laid up with that wound you gave him; if
he hadn't been, I am sure he would have mounted and ridden to join
Steyn's men directly war was declared, and it would have been very bad
if you had run against him."
"Very bad indeed, though I did not think of him at all. Yes, it is
unfortunate now that I am known to so many of the Dutch farmers
round Richmond and Brakpoort. I should say a good many of them will
have joined the enemy. I don't suppose they ever noticed me very
particularly, for I always kept out of the way as much as possible
when they came, as I could not put up with their abuse of the English;
still, some of them might recognize me. There is one thing, I always
wore the shooting suits that I brought out from home; and these Dutch
clothes I bought at Cape Town, when I knew the work I might have to do,
have altered my appearance a good deal. I wish now that I had thought
of buying three or four of those wisps of long hair that one sees in
the hairdressers' shops there; if I had fastened them inside my hat, so
as to fall down all round on to my shoulders, it would have altered my
appearance, just as cutting your hair short has changed you. I should
have looked like a rough young Dutch farmer from one of the country
districts."
They rode on a little farther without speaking, and then he went on
suddenly:
"I have an idea, Hans--our horses' tails are about the same colour. We
might very well cut off about nine inches; that would give plenty of
hair for our purpose. The only trouble would be fastening it into one's
hat. We will stop at farmhouses as we go along, and when we get to an
English settler's I will borrow a needle and thread from his wife. I
will take out the inside lining of the hat, sew the hair in all round,
except just in front, and then sew the lining on to it. That will keep
it all tight."
Hans laughed.
"It will make you look very much like what I was before I visited the
barber. No one would recognize you."
The third house at which they stopped they found to be an English
settler's. As they rode to the door, they were in the usual hospitable
way asked to come in and have something to eat.
"I am English like yourself," Yorke said, "and am serving as an officer
with the force at De Aar, and I am going scouting to gather news of
any movement on the other side of the Orange River. I may cross and go
farther, but as I have been living for some time near Richmond, I may
run against some of the rebel Dutch who have gone to join them, so I
want to disguise myself."
"Come in, sir; we will do anything we can. When I saw you riding up, I
certainly took you both at first for Dutchmen, but I see now that you
are far more clean and fresh-looking than they generally are."
"Have many Dutch joined them from the colony?"
"Not so many about here; but farther on they say a good many have
gone from Colesberg and that district. But most of them are waiting
for the Boer advance, then I think the greater portion of them will
join; from all I hear, it is an arranged thing, and the Boers reckon
confidently on being joined everywhere by their own people. I am going
to start to-morrow for De Aar, and shall sell all my cattle there, for
if the Boers come, they will be sure to carry them all off. I hear the
commissariat are buying them up for the use of the troops, and are
giving fair prices for them, so I shall be no loser by it; and I shall
sell my horses to them also. I have not got many sheep, but what I
have I shall get rid of, then we will shut up the house, put the best
part of our belongings into a waggon, and travel down quietly to Port
Elizabeth, and wait there till the business is over, and if we find it
likely to last, we shall go home for a holiday. It is fifteen years
since we came out here, and we have been talking of going to see the
old folk for some time, so if I get a fair price for the animals, it
would suit us very well."
They were now in the house, and after taking a cup of coffee and some
cold meat and bread, Yorke explained what he wanted. The colonist's
wife was much amused at the idea, and undertook at once to do the
sewing. Armed with a large pair of scissors, Yorke cut off about
ten inches of the horses' tails. While he had been doing this, the
woman had cut the lining out from the hat. The horse-hair was then
distributed equally round it, and she was about to begin sewing it in
when her husband said: "Wait a bit, Jenny; I will put my glue-pot on
the fire. The glue will hold the hair better than any amount of sewing,
and if a bit happened to work out, it would look very awkward."
"That would be capital," Yorke said. "I had my doubts whether sewing
would be sufficient, but there is no fear that glue will fail to hold."
Accordingly the glue was heated, and a band of it two inches wide
laid on round the inside of the hat. Then the hair was pressed into
this, and the lining sewn in its place again. Yorke put on his hat,
and, looking in a glass, joined in the hearty laughter of Hans and the
colonist. The appearance of the hair was perfectly natural, as it fell
on to the collar of his coat in thick masses.
"It is capital," the man said. "I am sure no one would suspect that it
was not real, except that, if they looked into it, they might think it
was coarser than usual; but it is just the way many of the Boers wear
their hair, and it certainly changes your appearance altogether. Your
face might be all the better for being a little more dirty, but it is
sunburnt, and will pass very well; only, you will have to bear in mind
never to take off your hat."
"I think I shall remember that," Yorke replied. "The Dutch farmers
seldom do take off their hats even indoors."
"I don't think that even Dirck Jansen would recognize you, Master
Yorke," Hans said, "after always seeing you in what you call your
Norfolk jacket and short gray breeches and stockings. He would not
know even your figure. You used to look slim, but in that rough coat,
fitting so loosely, your big trousers, and high boots, you look
different altogether. I am sure that if I had met you, without knowing
that you had disguised yourself, I should not have recognized you."
"You would look all the better for having your eyebrows darkened a
little," the woman said. "Your hair is much darker, and that would help
to change your expression."
The farmer found a cork, and after burning it, darkened Yorke's
eyebrows and eyelashes, thereby greatly altering the expression of his
face.
"I will put that in my pocket," Yorke said, taking the cork, "then I
can touch my eyebrows up from time to time as it wears off."
After many thanks to his host and hostess, he again mounted with Hans,
and rode off, feeling confident now that he could mix with the Boers
without fear of detection. Two days were spent in following the river
on the line that he had been directed to take, and questioning the
Kaffirs, of whom several bands were found living in little huts on its
banks. They had seen no parties of men, nor, although news travelled
fast among the natives, had they heard of any large gathering. On
arriving at Zoutpans Drift they saw four Boers on the other side,
evidently placed there as patrols. Yorke did not hesitate, but went
boldly across.
"Where do you come from?" one of the men asked in Dutch, entertaining
no doubt whatever that he was a young Boer farmer come to join.
"Our farm is a few miles from Richmond. I hope we are in time for the
fighting. Has it begun yet?"
"Not here, though there have been a few shots fired round Kimberley.
But a big force is going down by Van Reenans Pass to help Joubert drive
the Rooineks into the sea."
"That is just the job I should like to join in."
"Well, I expect you will be in time. By now, no doubt, they will have
finished with the Rooineks at Dundee. Then they will wipe out those
at Ladysmith, and after that it will be an easy job, for there are no
soldiers to speak of at Maritzburg. We shall make an end of them all
this time, and it will be Africa for the Africanders, and no English
allowed here. Another party will be crossing at Bethulie in a day or
two. All our people in that district are ready to join as soon as they
do so; but there won't be any fighting there, for there are very few
troops at Port Elizabeth, and I expect they will embark in their ships
directly they hear that we are coming. What are they doing out your
side?"
"Not much at present. I hear a talk that more troops are coming out;
but it is a long way off, three weeks' voyage, I heard."
"As much as that?" the other said in surprise; "I thought England was
close to the Cape. I am sorry to hear that, for I had made up my mind
that after we had driven them out from here, we should go and take
their country, just as they have tried to take ours; there would be
good pickings for us all."
"Grand pickings," Yorke agreed.
"Well," the other went on, "I suppose we can get ships. France and
Russia and Germany are all going to join us, and will be glad enough to
arrange with us to send ships if we undertake to do the fighting."
"No doubt they will be glad to do so," Yorke said, "Though I am ready
to fight, I do not think I should care for the voyage. They say that
people who go on board ships for the first time are always ill."
"Well, we shall manage it somehow," the other answered.
"No doubt; but I must be riding on. I shall go on to Bloemfontein, and
I fancy I shall join the Natal force rather than the Colesberg one. I
am reckoned a good shot in my district, and it is no use having a rifle
and bandolier if one is not going to use them."
So saying he touched his horse with his heel and rode off. Hans had
been talking with the others.
"Why have you cut your hair off?" one asked.
"Because it will save trouble," Hans replied, "and besides it is
cooler, and we shall have it hotter down in Natal than it is here; my
hat, too, was rather tight, and it makes a lot of difference getting
rid of your hair. If we had gone through Richmond, I might have got a
bigger hat there, and let my hair stay on. As it was, it was easier to
cut it off and have done with it."
Yorke had told Hans to talk as much as possible, while he himself said
no more than was necessary. No one could doubts for a moment that
his follower was what he looked, and his being so would divert any
suspicion from himself. They slept that night at Fauresmith. The little
town was crowded with men who had come in in obedience to orders. After
some difficulty they secured a room and then went out and mingled in
the throng. It was easy to see that there was considerable difference
of opinion among the men. Some were noisy and boastful, but the
majority were undoubtedly there against their will, and when these
gathered quietly together angry words were spoken against Steyn, who
had, without the consent of the great body of burghers, plunged the
country into war and caused them to be dragged from their homes and
families.
[Illustration: THE LITTLE TOWN WAS CROWDED WITH MEN.]
"We have no quarrel whatever with Britain," one said, "and she has
never interfered with us in the slightest. Englishmen have always been
welcome among us. We have nothing to do with the Transvaal quarrel. Why
shouldn't the Uitlanders have a vote, as our people have in Natal and
Cape Colony? Kruger has been working for it for years, and if--as he
says, and those fellows who are shouting over there think--we can drive
all the British out, it is the Transvaal people who will have all the
power. We know how Kruger's gang has piled up money by monopolies. If
the British go, it is we who will have to pay the taxes, and if there
is to be any change, I would rather a thousand times come under British
rule than under the Transvaal."
"You are right, Friedrich," another said. "If they had not said I
should be shot if I did not come with them I should not be here to-day.
They have taken my son as well as me, and who is to look after the farm
while I am away?"
"Besides," another put in, "if we drive the British out, who is going
to keep stores? Where are we going to buy what we want? There is
scarce a place that is not kept by an Uitlander. What do we know of
such matters? Where are we going to buy the goods to fill the shops?
Besides, it is not in our way. We are farmers and not shopkeepers. I
consider it a bad business altogether, and there are many of us who
would rather put a bullet into Steyn than into these Englishmen, who
have done us no harm."
Yorke found that the commando was going on to Edenburg, then by train
across the Orange River at Bethulie into Cape Colony, where, they were
told, every Dutchman would join them, for, except in Colesberg and some
other towns, there were very few English in the district. He gathered
that all the other commandos in the district were to move in the same
direction, while those on the north and west were to go to Kimberley.
There was no talk whatever of any large body going west. As darkness
came on, the streets began to empty, some of the men going into houses
where they had obtained lodging, but the majority, wrapping themselves
up, law down by the side of their horses. Hans went into a store and
bought some bread and cheese, for they had finished the things they had
brought with them before they had crossed the river that morning.
"We will go back to-morrow the first thing," Yorke said when they had
finished their meal in their room. "It is quite evident that they have
no idea at present of any attack in force on De Aar. It will not do for
us to cross at Zoutpans Drift; there would be no inventing a probable
tale to account for our movements; and it will be a great waste of time
to go down to Bethulie. There is the bridge near Colesberg, but that is
a good bit out of our way, and very likely that will be guarded too. I
was wrong not to have brought with me my English clothes, then I could
have said that I was an English refugee from Bloemfontein, and there
would have been no hindrance to our passing. As it is, I think we must
make up our minds to swim the Orange River. As we came along the banks
there were several places where the land sloped gradually down to the
water's edge on both sides. It was the case two or three miles below
the drift, and we will make for that point. We can follow the road for
some distance without much risk of meeting anyone, for it is evident
that the greater portion of the men have been commandeered, and the few
who remain will have plenty to do on the farms. If we should have the
bad luck to fall in with some small party, I can give out that I am
carrying orders from the field cornet for the men at the drift to be
very watchful, and if a British force is seen on the other side they
are to ride off at once and bring the news here, and then telegraph it
to Bloemfontein. I do not know, by the way, whether that story would
not pass us across the drift. I could say that the field cornet, whose
name we luckily heard, said that we could do better service at present
by crossing the drift and scouting on the other side than in going on,
as there was not likely to be any fighting at present, especially as
the train would certainly be so full at Edenburg that he would not be
able to carry on his whole commando."
Hans nodded. "All right, Master Yorke, I would rather do that than swim
the river, for I never swam a stroke in my life. I am told you can
cross rivers like that by holding on by saddles or horses' tails, but I
have no wish to try it."
"Well, we will start the first thing in the morning, before the Boers
are about. They have not a very long march before them and are not to
start till eight. We will be off at daylight."
Going downstairs he told the woman of the house that he would pay her
at once as he had to be off early. The horses had been fastened up in
a little yard at the back of the inn, and there would be no difficulty
in getting them out. Matters turned out as Yorke had hoped. The town
was still asleep when they started, and although they met two or three
Boers riding at full gallop to join the commando on the march, these
paid no attention to them. Fortunately, at the drift, the men who had
spoken to them the evening before had been relieved by others.
"Who are you, and where are you going?" one of the men asked.
Hans as usual acted as spokesman. "We are going scouting on the other
side. Field Cornet Hatjens said that the train from Edenburg would
not be able to carry all his commando, and that some will stop at
Fauresmith for another day or two. As we said we wanted to be doing
something, he ordered us to ride here and scout towards the railway,
and see if any trains with Rooineks were going north, and especially if
guards are stationed along the line. I don't suppose we shall find out
much, but it will be something to do, and we shall have time, I expect,
to join the others before they start. If we get any news it will be
telegraphed from Fauresmith to Bloemfontein." Then, as if no further
parley was necessary, they rode on into the water and were soon on the
other side.
It was a long day's ride to De Aar, but they got there late in the
evening, and Yorke went at once to the colonel's tent to report.
"Can I come in, sir?" he said as he reached the opening of the tent.
"Certainly, Harberton. Hullo!" he broke off as the light fell upon
Yorke's face. "Why, what have you been doing to yourself? I recognized
your voice at once, but if you had not spoken I certainly should not
have known you."
Yorke took off his hat.
"A wig!" the colonel exclaimed. "Where on earth did you get hold of it?"
"It is horse-hair, sir," Yorke replied, handing him the hat to be
examined. "I thought it possible that I might be recognized by some of
the Dutch who knew me when I was at the farm, so I cut a good bit of
hair off both of the horses' tails, and got an English colonist's wife
to make the hat up as you see."
"An excellent plan," the colonel said, examining it. "Naturally, it is
coarser than it ought to be, but many of the Boers have very coarse
hair, and the difference would not be observed in a casual inspection.
It would certainly pass excellently after dark."
"It passed well yesterday at Fauresmith."
"At Fauresmith!" the officer repeated in surprise.
"Yes, sir. Finding that I could obtain no intelligence of any kind
this side of the river, we crossed at Zoutpans Drift and went into
Fauresmith, which was full of Dutch, a commando having assembled there.
We mingled with them two or three hours and no one paid the slightest
attention to us."
"You have done well indeed; but before you tell me what news you have
gathered, I will point out to you that no doubt these men were all
bent on discussing the work upon which they were going to be engaged,
and would scarce give a casual glance at a stranger, and that although
your hair might pass unnoticed there among them, it would hardly be so
were you entering any place where you might be observed with suspicious
attention. I think that the idea of a wig is an excellent one, and I
should advise you to write down at once to Major Mackintosh, and ask
him to go to the cleverest hairdresser in Cape Town and get him to make
a wig imitating the long hair worn by the Dutch. Say that it is of the
utmost importance that it should be as indistinguishable from the real
thing as possible, as your life might depend upon its being undetected.
He had best send it up directed to me, as you might be away."
"I will do so, sir. I should not generally wear it, for most of the
men I saw at Fauresmith had their hair quite as short as mine; many of
them had almost a close crop. As we get farther north the chances of my
meeting any of the men from round Richmond would grow smaller, so there
would be no occasion to alter my appearance; and there would always be
some danger of the wig going wrong. Still, I will certainly get one; it
could be wrapped up very small, and if I should get into a mess, and
they were hunting for me, it would change my appearance altogether if I
could slip it on."
"It certainly would do so; but I do not think that you will be called
upon to go in disguise when we once move on. We shall, of course, then
have scouting parties ahead, and we shall get information from the
Kaffirs, and sometimes, perhaps, from well-disposed colonists. And now,
please tell me all about your journey, and what you have discovered.
"That is most satisfactory news--most satisfactory. This is the most
important point at present. There can be no doubt that in a day or
two all communication with Kimberley will be cut off, and this place
will become the base of our advance for its relief. An immense amount
of stores must be collected here before we can move forward. No
doubt small bodies of Boers will be hovering about, but they are not
likely to make an attack; and indeed I doubt if any force could do so
successfully. Still, it is a great thing not to be obliged to spend
half our strength on erecting strong earth-works, and to feel that
we can work in security. At the same time, I am sorry that they are
evidently going to invade the colony south of the Orange River. From
what I have heard, the Dutch population round Colesberg, Steynsburg,
and Stormberg are likely to join them almost to a man. The country is
mountainous, and it will be difficult to drive them out of it.
"Round Aliwal North a considerable portion of the population is
British. They may be able to hold their own; but if they cannot do
so, they are sure to suffer heavily at the hands of the Boers, who
will certainly combine plunder with patriotism. Among them there are a
considerable number of Irish and American Irish, Germans, French, and
Hollanders, adventurers of the worst kind, whom high pay and the hope
of plunder have attracted, together with a miscellaneous riff-raff of
the lowest class from the mining centres. The country Boers will be
rough and vindictive enough, you may be sure, but this foreign scum
will be infinitely worse; still, I have no doubt some of the troops as
they arrive will be sent on to Port Elizabeth, and will, we may hope,
be able to make head against them.
"By the way, we had news yesterday that Penn Symons had defeated
them at Dundee, though with heavy loss on our side; he himself is
mortally wounded. General White doubts whether that force will be
able to maintain itself, as the Boers are closing in all round him,
and the line of railway from Ladysmith is already cut. The Boers have
a tremendous advantage in being all mounted men, and, living as they
will do on the country they pass through, they will be unencumbered by
supply trains, and will move three feet to our one. The more I see of
it, the more I feel that we have a troublesome and difficult job on
hand."
The letter to Major Mackintosh was at once written and sent off by
the train starting that evening, together with one from the colonel,
stating the information that he had gained--thanks to the daring and
enterprise of Mr. Harberton, who had in disguise entered the Orange
Free State and gathered the intelligence he now sent from the men of
the Boer commando at Fauresmith.
Although Yorke had been absent but a few days, the changes at De Aar
were wonderful. Never even in the days of the gold fever in California
was so great a transformation effected in so short a time. De Aar had
grown from a little village of some forty houses, two or three shops,
a church and school, with a little camp, into a great military centre.
Captain Mackenzie of the Royal Artillery was in charge of a separate
camp, which grew daily. Here in a large kraal he had upwards of a
thousand mules and as many horses, all of which had been broken in and
trained for military service.
Not far away was the Army Service camp. Here were men capable of every
kind of work that could be demanded--carpenters, wheelwrights, railway
men, painters, plasterers, saddlers, and artificers of all sorts. Aided
by Kaffirs working under their direction, camps and sheds were erected
as if by magic, and in a couple of days a street of corrugated iron
stores would spring into existence on the veldt. There was already a
medical camp, with its Red Cross flag. The Yorkshire regiment had come
up, and was under canvas on the other side of the railway. The Kaffir
camp was also a canvas town, and here natives of many tribes, Basutos,
blacks from Cape Town, mule-drivers and transport men, were clothed and
fed. Breastworks had been erected by the troops and Kaffirs upon the
hills around, and redoubts thrown up on the plains.
On the morning after Yorke's return the colonel said to him: "I do not
see any work to which I can put you here, Mr. Harberton. After what
you have done I think you will be far more useful in scouting than in
any other way. I have been thinking the matter over, and have come to
the conclusion that you cannot do better than get some Kaffirs to act
under you. I will give you an order on the head of their department to
hand over a score of them to you. You can pick your men. They must, of
course, be active and intelligent fellows; and although you speak a
little of their language, it would be better to pick out some at any
rate who understand English or Dutch. Your friend Grimstone, whose
wife made your wig, has just come into camp with three or four hundred
cattle and a number of horses and ponies. He is at present in the
supply camp arranging the sale of his cattle. Some of his horses are
too light for transport purposes, but they are, like the Basuto ponies,
rough and hardy.
"Captain Mackenzie will no doubt buy all the animals suitable for his
purpose, and I will walk across with you to his camp and get him to
buy twenty ponies for your men. In this way you will be able to cover
a considerable extent of ground, and give notice of any party of Boers
who may ford the Orange River--for I hear that the water is sinking
fast, and no doubt it can soon be crossed at many points besides the
ordinary drifts. You would always be able to buy a sheep for the men,
for although the English colonists are rapidly coming in, of course the
Dutch are remaining. The men must carry ten pounds of flour apiece; and
if they have plenty of mutton it will last them for a week."
Yorke was delighted with the offer, indeed nothing could have suited
him better; and after going with the colonel and arranging for the
Kaffirs and ponies, he went to have a chat with his friend the colonist.
"I am glad to see that you got back safely," the latter said. "Did your
disguise pass you all right?"
"Admirably. I went straight into the middle of a commando at
Fauresmith, and learnt all that there was to learn without exciting
the slightest suspicion. I hope you are doing well with your cattle."
"Excellently. I am getting a much better price for them than I could
have obtained a month ago--more, indeed, than at the best of times;
and I am told that all my heavy horses will be bought on good terms
as remounts, but that the smaller ones are too light for this sort of
work. I shall try and sell them to one of the Dutch farmers, but I
can't expect to get much from them; in fact, I expect I shall almost
have to give them away."
"Colonel Pinkerton has just made an arrangement by which you will get a
fair price for twenty of them, if you have as many, for use by a score
of Kaffirs who are at work under me as scouts. I don't suppose he will
give you a high price for them; but at any rate he will pay you more
than you would get from the Boers, who would know that you must take
anything that they chose to offer."
"That is good news indeed. I am sure that I should not have got
more than a pound a head for them, and they are worth from seven to
ten pounds. If they will give me seven apiece all round I shall be
delighted."
This was, indeed, the price that Yorke heard later in the day was paid
for them.
On leaving Mr. Grimstone, Yorke went among the Kaffirs and picked out
twenty active men, all of whom spoke Dutch. They had all been clothed
in blue frocks and trousers, and when they had been handed over to him
he was well pleased with their serviceable appearance; in the afternoon
he obtained the ponies from the remount department. The Kaffirs were
in the highest glee at exchanging hard labour for work of a kind most
congenial to them. Saddles were not necessary, nor were there any to
spare, but Yorke obtained a couple of hides from the commissariat and
the natives cut them into strips, folded up their blankets and placed
them on the ponies' backs, using bands of raw hide as saddle-girths.
With other strips they manufactured loops to act as stirrups, rough
bridles, and reins.
"Now, Hans, I shall promote you to the position of sergeant," Yorke
said that evening. "Your only duty will be to look after the fellows
generally, to bargain with the farmers for food, and to see that the
blacks obey orders when we are camping."
"Very well, Master Yorke, I will do my best. I shall be glad to be
right away from this camp; the dust here is awful. And, having nothing
to do while everyone else is at work, I quite long to be a Kaffir and
do something."
"I did not know you were so fond of work, Hans."
"I didn't know that I was either," Hans said with a grin.
"But one could always sleep at the farm when there was nothing else to
do; it is too hot in these canvas tents for that. And when everyone
else is at work I do not like to be loitering about all day. Already
three or four officers have asked me who I was and what duty I was
employed on, and seemed to think that I had no right to be here, and
that I was of no use."
"Well, we shall have plenty to do for the next month, and, I hope,
beyond that."
The heat and dust were indeed terrible at De Aar. The weather was
trying and changeable, the sun was intensely hot, and a bitterly cold
wind often blew. Sometimes a dust-storm would burst over the camp,
covering everything with a thick coat of red dust. This would be
succeeded by a heavy thunder-shower.
The men drew their rations of flour the first thing in the morning,
together with some bags of forage for the horses, and at seven o'clock
Yorke and Hans mounted, and after ordering them to follow him four
abreast, left the camp.
The Kaffirs needed no instruction from him in the art of scouting, it
was born in their blood, and they had been taught as boys among their
tribes, before they drifted away South as drivers of bullock-carts
or in other capacities. Once there, and liking the life of loafing
vagabondage, with just enough work to keep them from starving, they had
remained until high wages were offered, and their instinctive love of
warfare tempted them to take service with the army. Two miles away they
were halted, and Yorke, who had bought Baden-Powell's book on scouting
at Cape Town and had studied it diligently, told them that they were
now to separate, and were to practise scouting among the low hills in
front.
"You must bear in mind," he said, "that the great object is to discover
the presence and strength of an enemy and the direction in which they
are approaching, without letting them know that they are observed. You
must never show yourselves against the line on the top of the hill, as,
were you to stand up with the sky behind you, you could be seen for a
very long distance. Half of you will go to the right and half to the
left. I shall stop here for an hour and watch you at work; then I shall
move straight forward. When you see me do so you will descend from the
hills and join me as I pass between them. Some of you may be too far
off to meet me there, but you will see our tracks and will follow us
till you overtake us. You had better remain here with me, Hans, and
watch them at work."
"I take it," Hans said, when the natives had started, "that scouting
for an enemy is the same sort of thing as crawling up to a herd of
deer, except that the deer are a good deal sharper than the men; you
can approach men from either side, while with deer you have not much
chance to get near them unless the wind blows from them towards you."
"That is so, Hans. The Boers' eyesight is sharp enough, but they have
not the power of smell. But if you were stalking them it would be best
always to try to come up against the wind, for although they could not
smell us, their horses might do so and show signs of uneasiness. Well,
we have stalked a good many deer together, and I fancy it will help us
a good deal with our work here."
Dismounting, he went with Hans on to an eminence and stood watching the
Kaffirs through his field-glass. He saw that, as they passed the first
small eminence, one man separated himself from the rest, rode up some
distance, and then leaving the horse, ran up until nearly at the top,
when he threw himself down and crawled forward with a zigzag movement,
taking advantage of the cover of rocks and sage-bushes. The next hill
was wider and longer, and two or three men turned off; beyond that he
could not perceive their movements. The same thing was going on on the
other flank.
"They will do splendidly," Yorke said, turning to Hans. "But when they
start scouting in earnest, and want to get up anywhere near the Boers,
they will have to take off those blue clothes of theirs; their own skin
won't show as much on the sand and rocks as those clothes will."
After waiting for an hour they mounted and rode slowly forward. They
were joined as they passed through a dip in the sand-hills by five men
from one flank and four from the other; there was not time for those
who had gone farther to get back. The party rode on slowly, and were
gradually overtaken by the others. All reported that they saw no signs
of the enemy. They were again sent forward to search hills to the
front, those who had before gone to the farther hills this time taking
those nearer. So the work continued all day, and in the afternoon
they halted at a deserted farmhouse, where they passed the night,
four Kaffirs being thrown out as patrols. Yorke had no fear of being
surprised, but thought it as well to accustom the men to behave as if
an enemy were near. For a week the work continued, being now carried
on more in earnest, as they were near the river. As the colonel had
suggested, their scouting was farther south than Yorke had before been.
"You know," he had said, "that there is no idea at present of their
crossing the Orange River between Zoutpans Drift and Philippolis, so
you had better watch the line between Seacow River at its junction
with the Orange to Hanover, as it is across this line that bands
that had crossed at Bethulie Bridge or Norvals Pont into Cape Colony
might advance west to cut the railway between De Aar and Richmond Road
station."
The country was very hilly here, and the Kaffirs were divided into
parties of two, each having his appointed station. One was always to
remain at the look-out, the second to scout down to the river, and
when required, to fetch provisions from the farmhouse, which served as
Yorke's head-quarters.