"You must be well mounted indeed to have got down from Mafeking in nine days, Mr. Harberton. Of course, you might have done it in a great deal shorter time had you ridden direct from Mafeking here, though I quite understand that, knowing nothing of the commander-in-chief's movements, you could not well have attempted that, for you would have had to pass through a country we have not touched yet."
"Yes, sir, it would have been only about half the distance—probably, I should say, even less than that."
"Yes, much less. We only reckon it to be a hundred and fifty miles from here to Mafeking in a direct line. But, of course, carrying despatches you could not have risked that, especially as you would have had to cross the Vaal, and you may be sure that every drift on that river will be strongly guarded."
"I don't think I should have come much quicker, sir. For, according to my map, the country is a great deal rougher than that through which I have travelled; and as the Boers have not been disturbed, I dared not have ridden by day, and could hardly have found my way by night; and there was no road marked, leading south-east from Mafeking, which is about the line that I must have followed. I knew, too, that Lord Roberts would have heard the news of the relief of Mafeking via Pretoria. Had it been otherwise, I should have risked the attempt, knowing the intense anxiety throughout the army and at home as to the safety of the garrison. As I was only carrying the details, two or three days' difference did not seem to me to be of importance. Had I travelled by that line, I could only have hoped to succeed by coming in disguise. I knew that Lord Roberts hoped to move from Bloemfontein two days after I left him, but there might have been fresh misfortunes like that at Sanna's Post. The line might have been cut in several places, and he might have been so delayed that he would not have been at Kroonstad by the time I arrived there. May I ask how far the general has got?"
"He crossed the Vaal to-day and bivouacked at Vereeniging. Generals French and Hutton, I believe, have moved on to Rietfontein, and General Ian Hamilton to Rietkuil."
"Then he has crossed the Vaal without opposition, sir?"
"Yes, the cavalry outflanked the enemy. False news had been spread as to the drifts by which they would cross, and the route they took completely surprised the Boers, who had all cleared off before the main army reached the river."
At twelve o'clock, Yorke took his place with his horse on a cattle truck, and the next day came up to the head-quarters, which had that morning arrived at the Klip River Station, little over ten miles from Johannesburg. There he delivered his despatches to Lord Roberts, who, on hearing the route he had followed, complimented him warmly upon the rapidity with which he had made his journey.
"We have only heard the bare fact that Mafeking has been relieved. Were they at their last gasp?"
"It did not look like it, sir. I do not know what stores they had remaining, but I heard that they were pretty nearly out of everything except oats and horse-flesh. The men certainly looked somewhat thin and worn, but by all accounts they had kept up their spirits wonderfully, and confidently relied upon succour arriving by the time we named."