"Well, I will send a mounted orderly for it. In the meantime you can examine our map. It is by no means perfect, but at least it will afford you some indications, especially when you approach Kimberley. A runner brought us three days since a sketch map showing the position of the Boers round the town, and this, when you get there, will certainly be of value to you. One of the sergeants will make a tracing for you. You shall see the despatch you are to carry, and had better get it by heart, so that if you are pursued, and find yourself likely to be taken, you can destroy it, for you would doubtless be searched so thoroughly, that however well you might conceal it, they would be likely to discover it. Now, let us look at the map;" and, entering the house where he had established his office, he passed through the room in which the non-commissioned officers were at work, and entered the one behind it. "Here is the map," he said. "You see the Boer positions round Kimberley are much closer together than those on this side, for, until we crossed the Modder, it would be naturally considered that it was from that side relief was expected, or that messengers might come and go. But on this side there are also a great many of them; they are thick round Wimbledon, and thicker still between Scholtz Kop and Spytfontein. But these would, of course, be intended rather for resistance against a force advancing this way than for offence against the town. There are two here, however, standing to the right of the road between this place and the town. There may be some patrols thrown out on the road; it is probable that there are some, and here is the principal danger. Between that road and the railway and the town of Wimbledon there are no entrenchments marked. Of course they may exist, but the Kimberley people are only able to send us the posts which they can make out with their glasses, or by their fire. As you see, the ground is very rough and broken, and would probably be very difficult to ride across in the dark if you were to leave the road. I may say that a small party of cavalry have been out this morning seven or eight miles along the road, and encountered no opposition, but were fired at several times by parties on the hills. But it is certainly likely enough that they come down on to the road after dark. I will send a dozen troopers as an escort with you for the first four or five miles."