The country was wild in the extreme—granite-peaked kopjes interlaced with innumerable little dongas met the vision, gaze where you would. The kopjes, whose sides and bases were clad with geraniums and heath of various kinds, formed a glorious mosaic against the steel-tinted blue of the African sky. Everything in Nature was sublime, and stood out in relief against the awful passions of men, who were striving might and main to imbrue their hands in their fellow-creatures' blood. War has its romance, its temporary glitter, but also its awful, black shadows in the shape of untold physical and mental suffering, endured by those who are compelled to serve under its sombre flag.
The firing continued, and Trooper Morton, irresistibly impelled by the sheer love of fighting innate within him, veered out of the track which Simon vehemently declared led to Orangefontein.
The New Zealander's temporary foot-gear had given way, and the two Kaffirs, while the Irregular rested, went in search of fresh leaves, taken from a bush of the plantain species, in order to patch up the old or manufacture a new pair of shoes.
The Kaffirs as a race are endowed with an extraordinary range and quickness of vision, and before Simon and Daniel had completed their self-imposed task, the latter's keen eye noted something on the horizon away to the right, which for the moment disturbed his peace of mind.
"Aasvogel, baas; dead people somewhere near!" said the unsophisticated Kaffir, as he advanced towards Morton, who was examining his still swollen ankles.
The vulture of South Africa, like the steed mentioned in Holy Writ, can smell the battle from afar, and little did Morton imagine that the hideous birds of prey were even now hovering above the bodies of his late comrades, proved friends in many a fight.
Farther away to the right still edged Morton. His adventurous spirit was yearning to be in the middle of the fray, but his Kaffir companions were not imbued with the same enthusiasm.
Presently the trio struck the Orangefontein road leading from Land Drift, and Morton called a halt. The biltong had given out, and the Kaffirs were empty-handed. Daniel, however, was equal to the emergency. His keen eyes detected some white flowers growing on the veldt, and his bowie knife was out in an instant.
"Somethin' good to eat, baas," he said, as he knelt down and began digging the ground round the flower roots. Presently he unearthed what appeared to be ground nuts. These he handed to Morton, saying, "You try dese, baas; dey are not bad eatin', an' you neber get tired after you hab made a meal ob dem."
The trooper responded to Daniel's invitation, and although the roots possessed a stronger pungent odour than he liked, he assuaged his hunger with them, and felt decidedly better after his meal.