Lord Methuen and Colonel Kekewich continued with unabating zeal their co-operations in the Rustenberg-Zeerust region, capturing many prisoners during their various marches. On the 13th of November, owing to a squadron of Imperial Yeomanry of Colonel Hickie's force having been surrounded near Brakspruit, both officers moved by different routes to Klerksdorp to disperse the commandos threatening Colonel Hickie. But these rovers had quickly made off to the west. Still hunting them, Lord Methuen, with Hickie and Kekewich on his right, left Klerksdorp to operate to west of Hartebeestefontein and Kaffirs Kraal. He got in touch with the foe, chased him towards Wolmaranstad, and "doubled him up" at Rooiport. Liebenberg's adjutant, his horses, stock, waggons, and twenty-six prisoners were the rewards of a fatiguing excursion. Lord Methuen returned to Klerksdorp on the 4th of December. Thus Colonel Hickie, whose column was covering the construction of the Schoonspruit blockhouse line, was relieved of the unwelcome attentions of the Boers, and the work on hand terminated without further interruption. [Illustration: COLONEL PILCHER (Photo by Robinson, Dublin)] ORANGE RIVER COLONY A magnificent programme for the sweeping up of infesting marauders in the region of Vrede and Reitz was planned out early in November. The difficulty and the extent of its plan may be gauged by the fact that the rendezvous and starting-points of the outermost columns engaged upon it were roughly at the angles of a parallelogram, whose diagonal was 175 miles in length, and of which no side was less than 100 miles, marked by the points Standerton, Harrismith, Winburg, and Heilbron; but of the details of this enormous movement, the energy and precision with which it was carried forth, nothing can here be said. It was arranged like an enormous and intricate game of chess, with tortuous and well-designed curves to keep the enemy from detecting the object of the manoeuvres, but the whole thing was a failure. The weather, firstly, was atrocious, and highly favourable to such Boers who might wish to straggle and draggle to cover; secondly, the immensity of the converging movement rendered it impossible to entirely fill all gaps, and these gaps the Boers were naturally "slim" enough to discover and to make use of. Thus, when all the splendidly managed and patiently executed marches concluded by the arrival of the columns at their objective, they found most of the birds flown. But the Boer stock and transport had to be left behind, and there was some consolation in knowing that the machinations of the marauders would be hampered for want of supplies for some time to come. Ninety-eight prisoners were taken and twenty-two of the enemy were killed, and horses and cattle in large quantities were secured. The troops returned to their original points of departure without incident, save in the case of Colonels Byng and Wilson. On the 14th of November a party of 400