"No. I am only riding to Graspan with a despatch, and am joining a party who are going there to see that the line is in good order. I shall be back to dinner." In a quarter of an hour Yorke, having received his despatches, rode off to the camp of the Lancers. The party was already prepared for a start. It consisted of an officer and twelve men. The former was already known to Yorke. "I heard that you were going with us, Harberton," he said, as Yorke rode up. "I shall be glad of your company. It is dull work riding alone, especially when you have nothing to do but see that the rails have not been torn up in the night." "I don't suppose there is much fear of that," Yorke replied, "for if the Boers had been there, they would have been sure to cut the telegraph wire, and they have not done so. I know that messages have been exchanged this morning." "If they can communicate," the officer said, "I don't see why you should have been sent with a despatch." "The lines and wires are so fully occupied by messages to De Aar and to the Cape, and backwards and forwards between the general and the home authorities, that they cannot be spared for details to Graspan; and personally, I would much rather be cantering over there and back than be idle in camp." "That is just my feeling," the other said. "I am afraid that it will be a long time before we have much to do here. However, there is one comfort, we shall have a chance to get supplies from the base. They would not let us telegraph, so we have sent a man down to Cape Town with a long list of orders. Whether or not we shall get them through, I don't know. Now, if you are ready, I will start." The order was given, and the party rode off at a trot. "One feels quite glad to get out of camp," the officer said. "Everyone is so completely in the dumps that it is downright misery to remain there. However, I don't expect it will last very long. We shall cheer up a bit if we hear that the people at home are not disheartened, and are going to send out a big lot of troops and carry the thing through, whatever it costs." "I have no doubt they will," Yorke said. "It is not often we back down because we have had a heavy blow. Look how we buckled to at the time of the Mutiny." "I sincerely hope so," the officer said; "but one can never feel sure after the way we surrendered to the Boers before. It makes one sick to think of it even now. Still, three such blows as they have had in the course of a week are pretty hard to bear. However, let us hope that the whole country will harden their hearts and determine that the thing must be carried through."