We were to have returned with commissariat waggons next day, to the camp, but having mistaken the hour, I was left behind, and had to follow them alone. The road enjoyed no very desirable reputation, but as they could not have got more than three or four miles, I trusted to my horse's speed for that distance, and having ridden at a quiet pace for the first mile, set spurs to him at the entrance of the bush, and dashed along at a rate that would have made me a very difficult flying shot. When half way through the bush, four or five armed Hottentots stood, about two hundred yards before me, whom I at once concluded were some of the Levies belonging to the waggon escort, and congratulated myself on having so soon overtaken them. My horse's foot striking with a sharp click against a stone in the deep sandy road, made them look round, when to my surprise they all bolted into the bush and disappeared; but for this lucky panic, I should, the very next moment, have ridden into the midst of the Rebels, who must, no doubt, have thought that I was at the head of a party. Before they had time to discover their mistake I was round the next turn, and about a mile further on came up with the train. "Winkel waggons" had come out to the camp, and the "winklers," or private traders, sold everything they had, from black sugar and meal to sardines and pickled salmon, at the most absurd and extravagant prices; the soldiers lavishly spending their accumulated pay in coffee, bread, and other comforts, which was rather encouraged than otherwise, as preventing the drunkenness that would otherwise ensue the first time they got into quarters. In the evening the mail arrived from Beaufort, having seen several parties of Rebels on the road lurking among the bush and rocks, and on the hill-sides; the return-bag was despatched with a double escort, and an order issued forbidding any one to go into Beaufort without a proper escort. A Kaffir spy, found prowling in the bushes close to the camp, was chased, and for some time eluded discovery, having disappeared in a most sudden and mysterious manner at the edge of the river; he was, however, finally detected by the quick eye of one of the Levies, who, holding up his finger, quietly pointed to a small motionless black object on the water, near the branch of an old tree; this was the nose of the Kaffir, but so still and motionless was the muddy water that when the Fingo raised his firelock, and took a long steady aim, every one was ready to roar with laughter at the expected "sell;" bang went the old flint musket, and to their surprise the Kaffir leaped up and dropped again with a heavy splash into the blood-stained water.