At eight o'clock Yorke started. The horse's hoofs had been effectually muffled and he had been provided with the countersign, and, passing through the pickets, he rode off, the Kaffirs trotting by his side. He had told the officer in command of the pickets that one of them would return with the horse in the course of an hour. After proceeding about four miles a glow of light could be seen here and there on Scholtz Kop, a short distance to the left of the road they were following, and also away farther over on the same side on the hill of Spytfontein. These were but the reflection of the fires in the trenches where the Boers were cooking their suppers and smoking their pipes. No flame betrayed the positions held by them, but the hills seemed lit up by a faint glow. "It is time to turn off, Peter," Yorke said, reining in his horse. "They may have outposts on the road, and as they would be keeping quiet, we might get in among them before we noticed them." Although they were still nearly two miles from the Boer position they could distinctly hear in the stillness of the night a faint continuous murmur, such as might be made by a waterfall or a stream running among rocks. This they knew to be the talk of thousands of the enemy. They had been conscious of it even before they reached the turn in the road whence they saw the lights, for their own advance had been almost noiseless. The Kaffirs were running barefoot, and the horse's hoofs had been so well muffled that its footstep was no more audible than those of the natives. It was now time to dismount and send the horse back, and Yorke handed the animal over to the native who was to return to camp. "When you get half-way back, Jack," Yorke said, "take off those blankets from the horse's feet, so that our sentries can hear your approach. If you were to come up quite silently, and they did not hear you till you were close to them, they might fire hastily. Therefore, lead the horse, and when you get near the lines strike up a song--not too loud, but so that they can hear you a hundred yards away. When they challenge, that is to say, when they call, 'Who comes there?' you answer as I told you, then they will let you pass, though they may keep you until their officer comes. As I spoke to him on the way out, he will pass you through. Don't go right into the lines near the Modder; half a mile outside lead the horse off the road and wait with him till it is daylight. You would be challenged by every sentry in camp if you were to enter in the dark." "Good fortune to you, baas! I wish I were going with you," Jack said, and then led the horse away. "Now, Peter," continued Yorke, "our work begins. The first thing is to put the strips of blankets round our feet. You had better put on your own shoes and muffle them, otherwise you might lame yourself among the rocks, and that would be fatal to us both."