Forward at a walk! They can't see us, nor tell us from one of their friendly troops riding about the veldt.

Silence in the ranks!" "He needn't have spoken," said Denham in a low voice, as the Colonel drew rein and let us pass.

"We shall get through yet, as you say." However, the odds seemed to be terribly against us, for whichever way we turned large bodies of the enemy were evidently in front; and after changing our direction again and again during the next two hours, the Colonel at last halted the corps.
"It's of no use," I heard him say to one of the senior officers.

"We're only tiring out the horses and men.

We must stand fast till daybreak, then select our route, make for it, and try what a good charge will do.
We shall clear ourselves then." Directly afterwards the order was passed for the men to dismount and refresh themselves with such water and provisions as they had, and silence once more reigned among us; for, not far off, large bodies of the mounted Boers were in motion, and twice we were passed at apparently some two hundred yards' distance, our presence not being detected.
"We ought to be able to get through," whispered Denham to me soon after the second body had gone by.