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THE LINES OF COMMUNICATION.
Christian de Wet, the elder of two brothers of that name, was at this time in the prime of life, a little over forty years of age.

He was a burly middle-sized bearded man, poorly educated, but endowed with much energy and common-sense.

His military experience dated back to Majuba Hill, and he had a large share of that curious race hatred which is intelligible in the case of the Transvaal, but inexplicable in a Freestater who has received no injury from the British Empire.

Some weakness of his sight compels the use of tinted spectacles, and he had now turned these, with a pair of particularly observant eyes behind them, upon the scattered British forces and the long exposed line of railway.
De Wet's force was an offshoot from the army of Freestaters under De Villiers, Olivier, and Prinsloo, which lay in the mountainous north-east of the State.