[9] In order to fully appreciate the excitement of the De Wet chase, it is interesting to read the account, contributed by the editors of _St. Paul's School Magazine_, of a British prisoner who perforce was with the hunted: "On the seventh day of our captivity we joined De Wet's commandos as they were crossing the Vaal, going north to Lindique. As we arrived at the Vaal a battle was in progress with Lord Methuen's force, which had come down from Potchefstroom. We were hurried across Schoeman's Drift, and barely cleared the drift when British infantry appeared, lining the ridges commanding the drift, and we came under a heavy rifle fire. We joined up with De Wet's waggons, who were trekking as fast as they could towards Wolve Nek. A very steep ridge of hills runs from Schoeman's Drift in a north-easterly direction, parallel with the Vaal River. De Wet held a very strong position here. Lord Methuen's force was on the west and north-west, and Lord Kitchener's cavalry and mounted infantry column was on the southern bank of the Vaal. We remained here twenty-four hours, and could see the British columns closing in on De Wet's laagers. It was here the Boer general did a smart thing. Seeing that his only plan was to break up his laagers, directly night came he moved his waggons out and spread them in a long line along the roads that led out of the hills in horse-shoe shape, commanding both western and eastern ridges. This gave him two alternate routes to escape by, and commanded the narrow neks where the three ridges of hills running in a north-east direction met at an apex. Theron's force, with whom we still remained, were camped a mile south of the front bend of the horse-shoe laagers, and nearest to the British lines. At daybreak the following morning the Boers were caught napping; a tremendous commotion was observable, and our inquiry elicited the two words, 'Khaki's coming!' And no mistake, for during the night the British had occupied a ridge on the west, flanking and commanding the western end of the horse-shoe, and with the first grey streaks of dawn bang came their shells into the waggons. The Boers scattered, abandoned eight waggons, took half their convoy by the main road to the north, and the balance, with their main column, the road to the north-east, Theron's crowd and De Wet's burghers covering their rear. I saw at a glance we were in an awkward fix, with two alternatives--either blown to pieces where we stood, or run the gauntlet of a direct flank fire. De Wet soon settled it, and ran the gauntlet. Away we went helter-skelter up the steep slopes of the hills, aiming for an almost impossible-looking pass, strewn with gigantic boulders and small stones. We had just reached the pass when three waggons toppled over and fell down the gorge, and every moment we expected the same fate. The pass selected was an inconceivable place for vehicles to get through, but the Boer has a happy knack of negotiating difficult country.