The third phase was marked at first by many exciting incidents, but by no great battle. The Boers defended some of the positions taken up by them with bravery and determination, but when once the railway to Komati Poort had fallen into our hands the war degenerated into a guerilla struggle. It was a war of raids, sometimes by a comparatively strong force and at others by handfuls of plunderers; a war trying and fatiguing in the extreme, and demanding extraordinary endurance on the part of our troops, but of which the end was always in sight. The obstinacy of the Boers had only the effect of bringing ruin upon their own countrymen and women; it could by no possibility alter the final result. I have now endeavoured to recount the leading incidents in the second phase of the war, and although events have moved so rapidly that the capture of Pretoria is already an old story, I may hope that it has not yet lost its interest with British boys, and that _With Roberts to Pretoria_ will meet with as favourable a reception as that given last year to its companion volume. G.A. HENTY. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. A Change of Fortune 1 II. On a Dutch Farm 19 III. A Quarrel 36 IV. The Ultimatum 58 V. Scouting 77 VI. The Advance 95 VII. Belmont, Graspan, and the Modder 111 VIII. A Dangerous Mission 132 IX. Kimberley 151 X. An Escape 170 XI. Magersfontein 190 XII. A Prisoner 211 XIII. Friends 227 XIV. A Band of Scoundrels 244 XV. Down Country 263 XVI. An Old Enemy 281 XVII. The Relief of Kimberley 300 XVIII. Paardeberg 318 XIX. Mafeking 337 XX. Johannesburg 354 XXI. Settled 371 WITH ROBERTS TO PRETORIA CHAPTER I A CHANGE OF FORTUNE