Five minutes sufficed to muffle the feet of the horses, and then they continued their journey, keeping on the road, sometimes going at a trot, and sometimes walking, until they had covered, they calculated, some twenty miles from the river. Then they moved off a few hundred yards, opened the saddle-bags, and had a good meal, gave the horses a feed of mealies, and lay down for the night. They were on the move again at daybreak. Yorke had decided to go on as far as the little stream called the Hondebloss, where they could give the horses a drink and fill up the water-bottles, which they had not had time to do before leaving, though fortunately they had watered their horses at the small stream that runs through Colesberg. It was possible that there might be a Boer force at Petrusville, and therefore he determined to strike due west from the river for Potfontein Siding. The distance was too far to be traversed in a day, without the risk of knocking up the horses. Consequently they camped out on the veldt that night, and arrived at the little railway-station the next morning. Here they found a company of militia, whose officer at first regarded them with some suspicion. Yorke had, however, that morning stowed away his wig as before, and Hans had cut off the long fringe of hair under his straw-hat, and on stripping off his coat and flannel shirt, Yorke showed the khaki uniform underneath, with shoulder-strap with the badges showing the number of his corps. The story, too, that he had escaped from Pretoria was recognized to be true. "You will have to ride up to the Modder, there is no getting into a train here. Troops are passing up every day. I suppose you know that Lord Roberts has now arrived to take the command. He reached Cape Town on the 10th of January. Lord Kitchener came with him as chief of his staff. We expect them to come through in a few days. Our troops have been pouring up fast. No doubt there will be a forward movement directly he arrives. It is a frightful nuisance being stuck down here guarding the line. So you have come down from Pretoria? How did you manage to get away?" "It is a long story," Yorke replied. "I shall have time to give it to you at full length presently. As Lord Roberts has not yet come up, I shall give my horses a couple of days' rest. They have made a tremendous journey. We drove from Pretoria to Bloemfontein, averaging nearly fifty miles a day, got a lift in the train down to Colesberg, and have come from there in two days." "They certainly deserve a rest then before going ninety miles from here to the Modder." "I wish I could get a lift in a train. Our horses have done very heavy work lately. We should have three days' ride of thirty miles each to the Modder; it would be much pleasanter for us to be able to go by train than have to ride all the way."