"No, we had better not. There may be parties moving between Jacobsdal and the Boer lines round Kimberley, or reinforcements coming down to Jacobsdal from the north."
"They would not travel at night," Peter said positively. "Boers can ride all day, but nothing would make them go out at night if they could help it. Boers sleep like a pig."
"Well, we will keep to the road for a bit then. I should like to push on as fast as we can, for we have some sixteen miles to go yet and we have lost a lot of time in getting across here, and if we were to take to the rocks again there would be very little chance of our getting through the Boer lines before daylight."
They had gone about a mile when the native stopped. "Men on the road, baas."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite sure, baas. I heard one strike a match."
Walking very carefully, they could presently make out a dark mass ahead of them. "Waggons, baas," Peter whispered, and they at once left the road, moved a couple of hundred yards to the right, and then, stepping with the greatest care, continued their way parallel with the road. They could hear the sound of voices as two or three Boers talked together, and occasionally a movement among the oxen. They could not make out the outline of the waggons, nor see in which direction they had been moving, but guessed that it was a party of Boers from the north, moving down to strengthen Jacobsdal, or it might be a convoy of stores from that town for the use of the force beleaguering Kimberley. For the next hour their progress was very slow, for they had to make their way through thick bush, and it needed the greatest caution to avoid being heard by the party on the road.
It was not that they feared being hit by their fire, but the sound of rifle shots would put all the Boers within sound of them on the watch, and greatly diminish their chance of getting through. As soon as they were a quarter of a mile beyond the waggons they came down nearer to the road again. Here there were no bushes, but the ground was thickly covered with boulders of all sizes. At times the hills approached so close to the road that they were obliged to take to it for a while. Whenever this was the case they went at a trot, but as they were now abreast of the line of the Boer forts, they took to the rocks again as soon as possible. Twice they heard parties of horsemen coming along the road, and hid up until these had passed.
"They do not mean to be caught napping, Peter," Yorke said. "They are evidently uneasy. I have no doubt they are well prepared along the Spytfontein line, but they cannot be sure that we shall try to break through that way, and may believe that we shall attack Jacobsdal, and, making a wide circuit, enter Kimberley from the north. In some respects that might be the better plan, and I have no doubt the general has well considered it; but although he might get into Kimberley that way without any fighting, he would be worse off when he got there than he is on the Modder. He has not sufficient stores collected yet to provision Kimberley for any length of time, and the fighting the other day showed that he has not enough men to defeat the whole Boer force stationed among the kopjes, so that he would be completely cut off, with the enemy between him and any force coming up to his assistance."
Steadily they plodded on, keeping for the most part along the road, and stopping frequently to listen. Several times Peter declared that there were Boers among the hills on either side of them, and once or twice even Yorke could faintly hear what he judged to be snoring in the stillness of the night air. At length even the keen ears of the native were unable to detect any warning sound, and he declared that they must now have passed the outside line.