Yorke opened the door, darting out, placed himself on the side facing them. "Despatches from the Modder!" Then, feeling certain that the Boers, two hundred yards away, would not be able to make out his figure in the gloom, he called to Peter, and together they ran forward. A number of shots were fired, but these whistled overhead. The Boers had also doubtless heard the approaching horse, and were firing in their direction, forgetting for the moment the two men who had all day kept them at bay. In a couple of minutes Yorke and Peter joined their rescuers. "I am glad indeed to see you, sir," an officer said as he came up. "We have heard firing going on all day, and could make out that it came from this point; but as we did not know how many Boers were on the kopje we could not go out to see about it till it became dusk. Are there only you and the native?" "That is all." "Then we may as well be off at once, for though I don't think the Boers can make us out at this distance, we may get a stray bullet among us at any moment. Will you mount behind me?" "Thank you. I will run alongside and keep hold of your stirrup leather." "Very well. We will break into a walk as soon as we are out of range of those rascals, then you shall tell me the news." He gave the order, and the troop faced round and went off at a trot, which they maintained until the Boer fire had entirely ceased. "Tell me how you got through their lines. Is it possible that you and that native alone have kept the Boers off all day? The firing sounded heavy at times, and we thought that they must have a considerable force there. After the first outburst it was for the most part only a dropping fire." "There were about a hundred of them I should say," Yorke answered. "I happen to be a very good shot, and the Kaffir is a very fair one, and the consequence was they very soon learned that it was death to show a head. Some mounted men came out first, but I waited till they were within two hundred yards, and four of their horses went back riderless. They did not show again, and it has been a duel ever since between us and the men on the hillside, all the advantage being with us, as the loopholes through which we fired were but a couple of inches wide at the opening. We stopped their rush at once, and they have been in hiding ever since." "We heard that Lord Methuen was advancing to our relief. How far is he off?" "He crossed the Modder River the day before yesterday." "As near as that is he?" the officer exclaimed. "Then we may indeed expect to see him soon. Was there fighting there? We thought we heard a faint rumble on that day, but it might have been thunder at a great distance."