"Are you going to take your man with you?"
"No, sir, I shall have to travel fast, and may have to ride for my life. I shall take my best horse. If you will kindly allow me to leave the other in your stable, my man can bring him on when the army moves."
"That I will gladly do, but you must let me lend you a better mount than the one you are taking. I have two in my stable of which you can take your choice. I think either of them is as good as any in the state—or, I should say, in the colony, as, since your general's proclamation, we are all British subjects."
"I could not think of accepting your kind offer, sir."
"But I insist upon it, Mr. Harberton. Indeed you will be doing me a service, for since the war began I have had no use for my horses at all, and they sadly want exercise. A month's hard work will be of real benefit to the animal; and I should benefit too, for time was when I did not mind how fiery a horse was, but now that I am getting on in life I am not fond of having to fight with my mount."
"I am extremely obliged to you, sir; but I do not see how I shall be able to send it back again to you."
"When you get to Johannesburg you can leave it with Mr. Chambers, he and I will arrange how it is to be returned. In fact, as soon as matters are settled down I shall certainly go there myself. Do not let that trouble you in any way."
Yorke gratefully accepted the offer. Both of his own horses had felt the hard work to which they had been subjected, that which Hans rode more than his own; for the latter had been kept hard at work since their arrival at Bloemfontein, and was certainly not fit to start on a journey of many hundred miles. Both horses could, without difficulty, go on at the rate the army was likely to advance, especially after having another ten days' rest at Bloemfontein.
Hans and Peter were both disappointed when they heard that they were not to accompany Yorke. But Hans himself, who throughout had taken great care of the horses, admitted that these were not fit to start on so long a journey. Accordingly the next morning at daybreak Yorke started alone on the horse that had been lent to him. The distance between Bloemfontein and Kimberley was somewhat under a hundred miles, and this was traversed in two days, Yorke riding only forty miles the first day, as he felt that it would not do to push the animal too hard immediately after being so long without work. He did not hesitate to complete the remaining part of the journey on the second day, as he knew that the horse would have at least a week's rest before starting again. It was a splendid animal, superior even to that which had been killed at the time when he was taken prisoner on his way to Belmont, and as it stretched out in a gallop under him he felt that he could ride anywhere across country without fear of being overtaken by any party of Boers he might meet.
On his arrival at Kimberley he handed his despatches to Colonel Mahon, to whom he was instructed to deliver them if Lord Methuen was still at Boshof.