In torrents of rain which turned every spruit into a river and every road into a quagmire, the British horsemen stuck manfully to their work.

De Wet had hurried south, crossed the Caledon River, and made for Odendaal's Drift.

But Knox, after the skirmish at Vaalbank, had trekked swiftly south to Bethulie, and was now ready with three mobile columns and a network of scouts and patrols to strike in any direction.

For a few days he had lost touch, but his arrangements were such that he must recover it if the Boers either crossed the railroad or approached the river.

On December 2nd he had authentic information that De Wet was crossing the Caledon, and in an instant the British columns were all off at full cry once more, sweeping over the country with a front of fifteen miles.