d dealt two such shrewd blows within a
few weeks of each other. Troops were rapidly concentrated at Klerksdorp.
Kekewich, Walter Kitchener, Rawlinson, and Rochfort, with a number of
small columns, were ready in the third week of March to endeavour to
avenge Lord Methuen.

The problem with which Lord Kitchener was confronted was a very
difficult one, and he has never shown more originality and audacity than
in the fashion in which he handled it. De la Rey's force was scattered
over a long tract of country, capable of rapidly concentrating for a
blow, but otherwise as intangible and elusive as a phantom army. Were
Lord Kitchener simply to launch ten thousand horsemen at him, the result
would be a weary ride over illimitable plains without sight of a Boer,
unless it were a distant scout upon the extreme horizon. De la Rey and
his men would have slipped away to his northern hiding-places beyond the
Marico River. There was no solid obstacle here, as in the Orange River
Colony, against which the flying enemy could be rounded up. One line
of blockhouses there was, it is true--the one called the Schoonspruit
cordon, which flanked the De la Rey country. It flanked it, however,
upon the same side as that on which the troops were assembled. If the
troops were only on the other side, and De la Rey was between them and
the blockhouse line, then, indeed, something might be done. But to place
the troops there, and then bring them instantly back again, was to put
such a strain upon men and horses as had never yet been done upon a
large scale in the course of the war. Yet Lord Kitchener knew the
mettle of the men whom he commanded, and he was aware that there were
no exertions of which the human frame is capable which he might not
confidently demand.

The precise location of the Boer laagers does not appear to have been
known, but it was certain that a considerable number of them were
scattered about thirty miles or so to the west of Klerksdorp and the
Schoonspruit line. The plan was to march a British force right through
them, then spread out into a wide line and come straight back,
driving the burghers on to the cordon of blockhouses, which had been
strengthened by the arrival of three regiments of Highlanders. But to
get to the other side of the Boers it was necessary to march the columns
through by night. It was a hazardous operation, but the secret was well
kept, and the movement was so well carried out that the enemy had
no time