After a rest of eighteen hours, Yorke started for Kroonstad. He scarcely saw a person during his long ride. The advance of Methuen to Hoopstad, and Roberts to Kroonstad, so alarmed the Boers that they had for the most part abandoned their farms and trekked north. The majority, however, of the men capable of bearing arms were with the commandos, and a few women only remained in the farmhouses. On the third day after leaving Boshof he arrived at Kroonstad. Here his work was practically over, and he was not sorry for it; for, excellent as his horse was, it was beginning to feel the terrible strain of the journey, having accomplished over four hundred miles in nine days, a performance that showed the strength and endurance of the horses of the lofty plateau of the Free State and the Transvaal. [Illustration: YORKE RECEIVES A DESPATCH FROM BADEN-POWELL.] A strong force was stationed at Kroonstad, which was now the base of the advancing army. Going at once to Lord Methuen, who had arrived there from Hoopstad two days before, Yorke obtained an order from him for carriage for himself and horse in a train that would start at midnight. He spent an hour relating to the general the adventures he had passed through since he had last seen him on the Modder. "You must be well mounted indeed to have got down from Mafeking in nine days, Mr. Harberton. Of course, you might have done it in a great deal shorter time had you ridden direct from Mafeking here, though I quite understand that, knowing nothing of the commander-in-chief's movements, you could not well have attempted that, for you would have had to pass through a country we have not touched yet." "Yes, sir, it would have been only about half the distance--probably, I should say, even less than that." "Yes, much less. We only reckon it to be a hundred and fifty miles from here to Mafeking in a direct line. But, of course, carrying despatches you could not have risked that, especially as you would have had to cross the Vaal, and you may be sure that every drift on that river will be strongly guarded."