"You don't look very fit, Major Strause," answered Keith. "Is anything wrong?"
"I have been having a fresh touch of fever—a touch of the sun, I suppose. For the last few days I have been in the hospital down here—the Congregational Chapel: a beastly hole—no comforts of any sort; not a decent nurse in the place. I was looked after, if you can call it being looked after, by one or two orderlies. You may be sure I left as soon as I could. Oh what I suffered!"
"You look like it," said Keith.
"General White seems more hopeful," pursued Strause. "He is confident that relief will be ours before long. And have you noticed that the Boers are beginning to trek?"
"No, I have not. Is that the case?"
"Beyond doubt. If you look now, you will see something."
The two men went to the top of the hill, and noticed a long line, more than a mile in length, of wagons, slowly but surely going away from Ladysmith. Then they saw heavy dust clouds. The wagons were crowded with people. They went twining like snakes round the hillsides. They certainly looked like a beaten army in full retreat.
Keith's eyes sparkled. There came a streak of red into his sallow cheek.
"It can't be true!" he said. "We have waited so long for good news that now I can scarcely realize it!"
"It may or may not come," said Strause. "The general is confident. Another good sign is that there is no more horse-flesh ordered for the men, and we are put on full rations."