As they approached they could see that the sentry called to a comrade close by, for another at once joined him. When they came within a hundred yards the sentry challenged.
"An officer with despatches from Kimberley," Yorke replied.
"You can come on for a bit," the soldier said, "but I shall not let you pass farther until an officer comes."
"I have a permit from General Colville to enter and pass the lines."
"Then you can come on, but don't touch those guns of yours till I have seen your permit."
The sentry was justified in being doubtful, for many of the Boers had adopted khaki-coloured clothes, and at a very short distance Yorke might well have been mistaken for one of these.
"That is all right, sir," the soldier said, when he had read the permit. "We are obliged to be careful, you know; and if you had come before it got light I could not have let you pass without the countersign."
"You were quite right to stop me," Yorke said. "It is because I knew that I could not get in without the countersign that I have been sleeping for the last three or four hours a quarter of a mile away. Did you hear any firing in the night?"
"I did not, sir; but the man I relieved told me that he had heard three shots over to the right, and we were charged to be extra vigilant."