"The ground is very rough and broken behind the centre, and there is a big range of hills--not kopjes--still farther behind. To their right is some flat ground where the cavalry could act, but they would have to pass through a line of smaller kopjes forming a continuation of the three principal ones. There were no men on these when I was watching them yesterday; but if they should retreat across the plain, a small body of them placed there could check the advance, if not stop it altogether." "Then, if I understand you, Harberton," the major said, examining the leaf of the pocket-book on which Yorke had roughly dotted down the positions, "we could move along the line of railway without the Boers being able to trouble us from the position they occupy?" "Certainly, major; but of course they would be able to come down behind us directly we pass, and attack the baggage-train. Being all mounted men, they could move very fast." "Yes, I see that they might give us a lot of trouble, and I should think Lord Methuen would clear them out before we go farther." Yorke reported himself to the quartermaster-general, and he was told to wait, as the general might wish to question him further; indeed, five minutes later he was sent for. The general had only dismounted a few minutes before, and was now in a room in the farmhouse. He had before him the rough sketch of the Boer position that Yorke had sent in on the previous evening. "The information you have gathered is valuable, Mr. Harberton, and, rough as the sketch is, it has given us a better idea of the Boer position than we had previously been able to gather from the maps. Do I understand you to say that if the Boers were prevented from making off across this level ground to the right rear of the position, they would be thrown back across this line of high hills which is marked in my map as Mont Blanc?" "Yes, sir. I went up to the highest point of those hills, and so far as I could see they would have to go by a road that runs round the foot of the mountain to the south-east. That road might be cut by a cavalry force making its way round to the south of the three kopjes from Witputs Station." "And what is the length of front along these three kopjes at present held by them?" "I should say from five to six miles, sir. It is about as far from the right-hand kopje to Belmont Station; the left or southern kopje is a good deal farther from the line of railway." "They have erected breast-works on the hill?" "Yes, sir; rough barricades of rocks and boulders. Their horses are gathered on the low ground behind the kopjes." "You do not think they will fall back at our approach?" "I should not think they would, sir. My Kaffirs say that they all think it absolutely impossible for the troops to scale the hills in the teeth of their rifle fire."