We decided to leave it, its Kaffir driver and the young burgher, Van Rensberg, and go ahead with the two pack horses. Young Van Rensberg, a brave and noble boy, was instructed to await our return, but if the English should show up before we did, he was to use his own judgment and save himself, cart and mules. Off we went, and on reaching a ridge about nine miles from the railway line we stopped, brought out our field glasses and found that the English were numerous all along the line. But we must pass through, and that was all there was to it; so we decided to pass the line very near to Olifantsfontein, because the English wouldn't think for a moment that any Boers would dare to take such desperate chances. We waited till the sun was down. It was the 3rd of May and the full moon came up in all her glory just as the sun dropped below the horizon. It seemed to us that it was as light as day, but go we must, and we did go. At about eight o'clock p.m. Major Pretorius said, "There is a line," and there it was. Cautiously we approached it, then crossed it and smiled a heavenly smile as we looked at the Tommies 600 yards away at the station, smoking, telling jokes and laughing by their camp fires. They had no guards out, and we passed by them without interruption, not seeing any trouble ahead. We rode on for a mile, stopped and rested our horses for fifteen minutes and then went on our way to the six-mile-spruit near Pretoria. We rode till one o'clock a.m. and we knew that we were near the Pretoria-Rustenberg main road, so we decided to stop, sleep until daylight and then hasten to Schurweburg, a farm settlement just twelve miles west of Pretoria. We hobbled our horses and went to sleep on the dry grass. Just at daylight Major Pretorius stirred us up, and we caught, saddled and packed our horses and travelled at a gallop, because we were very near the English forts on the hill between us and Pretoria. Just as the sun rose we were crossing an arroya (a spruit), and Preller discovered a long canvas bag, well filled, by the roadside. It bore the name of one of Kitchener's scouts and had evidently fallen from a wagon during the night. The numerous horse and wagon tracks convinced us that we were very near an English command and therefore we must proceed very cautiously.