From this moment the war as a war was over; fighting continued for months, but it was guerrilla warfare. Botha still held a force together, De Wet and Delarey still carried out dashing raids; and although early in December Lord Roberts returned home, and Kitchener became commander-in-chief, matters were still unsettled. The efforts of our infantry to come up with the mobile Boers, who were always able to obtain remounts from the farmers, were altogether useless. The cavalry were too few to restrain the operations of a foe who could move rapidly from place to place over many square miles, strike a blow, and disappear, and twenty thousand more mounted men, besides other reinforcements, were sent out from England in the spring of 1901.
Before these troops arrived De Wet, after the incursion into Cape Colony in hopes of getting the Boers to rise, was beaten again and again, and escaped with the greatest difficulty back into the Orange River Colony. This put an end to the guerrilla fighting on a large scale.
"It may be months before we can get fairly to work again," Mr. Chambers said one morning early in December, "and I am resolved, therefore, to go home with my wife and the girls. I shall stay there with them only until leave is given for the mining population to return. Then I shall leave them in England and come back—at any rate, until everything is again in thorough working order."
He had in November received news that the directors had granted Yorke the five per cent commission that he had recommended, and that the general meeting of shareholders had unanimously confirmed their action. Yorke had written home to his parents, and had received an answer saying how delighted they were to hear that he was done with the fighting. He had now the pleasure of sending his father an order to receive seven thousand pounds of his money lying in the hands of the company, and requesting him to invest it in the name of his mother. In January he had a visitor, for to his surprise one day Mr. Allnutt walked in. He was dressed in deep mourning.
"Why, uncle, who would have thought of seeing you! This is a pleasure."
"Well, I got your letter a fortnight ago, saying that you were a sort of locum-tenens here, and I determined to run up and see you before I went back to England. Your aunt died suddenly a month before. The utter disappointment of her hopes broke her down altogether, and she had aged ten years in appearance. She had learned of the death of Dirck from two men who went from here with him. They said that he was shot in the streets of Pretoria, where he had gone, it seems, to take part in that abominable plot. Two days later she was found dead in her bed. She had altered her will after that affair between you and Dirck, and had appointed another cousin, a very decent fellow, her heir. He had been in grave disfavour on account of his loyalist opinions, but she had come to see that he was right; and at any rate, I am very pleased that he has come into the place instead of Dirck. He has made a very satisfactory arrangement with me, and with the income I shall draw from the farm, and my savings, I can live very comfortably in England. Of course now, from what you told me in your last letter, you would have no idea of settling down as a farmer."
"No, indeed, uncle. I have a splendid position here before me, and I hope that, by the time I am thirty, I too may return and settle in England."
Mr. Chambers came back in September, and mining operations were soon in full swing. "Dora," he said to Yorke, "is going to be married at Christmas to an officer who went home in the same ship with us. My wife and Mary are coming back two or three months later; I shall get you to go down to Durban to meet them."
"Why, I thought they were going to stay in England?"
"Well, they have changed their minds. They both were in favour of coming back for a year or two, till I could go home for good. Mary was especially anxious to do so;" and he smiled quietly, and Yorke coloured. Maybe, possibly, Mr. Chambers and his wife had talked the matter over, and something may come of it some day.