He followed the Boer instinct to save himself, and he crawled into an ant-bear hole about forty yards from the road and pulled his rifle with him. The whole column passed him by and when he could no longer hear the horses' feet beating the road, he ventured to peep out and see his position. He saw one man coming at a gallop about a half a mile away and he knew this man belonged to the column that had passed by, so he lay low and watched the lone trooper. When the trooper was about forty yards away little Pretorius jumped out of the hole, threw his rifle into position and called out, "Hands up!" The trooper was an English sergeant and thought at first that the little boy was joking, but soon saw that he was in earnest, and at once surrendered. Little Pretorius made him lay down his rifle, ammunition, and so forth, and then started him on his way on foot. After the trooper had gone about 100 yards the little boy with two rifles, plenty of ammunition and a fine horse, bridle and saddle, went cantering away to the farm settlements. On his arrival he was the hero of the hour, and every one, men, women and children, congratulated him on his pluck and good soldier sense. Now thirty-two of the 110 men were mounted. [Illustration: A TYPICAL BOER FAMILY OF FOURTEEN S.W. Joubert and Family.] We stopped here for three days to rest ourselves and horses and to have new shoes put on the horses, for we had to pass through a very rocky country. We learned that the English forts were very numerous between us and General de la Rey, and that it would be difficult to pass them by without being captured, but we must take the chance. Here we first met the famous Boer Spy, Captain Naude, a young man about twenty-three years old. In due time I will tell all about him and his marvelous spy system in Pretoria and Johannesburg. While in this farm settlement he and a few boys went into Pretoria every night and brought out a good bunch of the officers' horses, bridles and saddles, so that by the time we said good-bye to all and started on our long journey, seventy of the 110 men were mounted. We arrived at this farm settlement on May 4th and left on the 7th, passed near Krugersdorp, saw the English camps about there and went down through Hekpoort.