as he could not expect to get there before the
afternoon of 11th October, when the ultimatum addressed by President
Kruger to the British Government expired, he determined to ride at a
moderate pace, for he knew that Wilfred would wait for his arrival. But
there was another matter to be considered. An Englishman would now be a
marked man in the Transvaal or the Orange Free State, so that if he
wished to get through undetected, he must choose the darkest hours for
travelling, and lie up during the day.

About five miles out from Kimberley he pulled up, knee-haltered his
ponies, and sat down on a boulder, with a map of the two republics
spread out before him.

"Let me see!" he thought; "I must pick out a route which will be little
frequented just now. The Transvaallers, I know, are rushing west and
north to Mafeking and the northern border, and east and south towards
Natal. The other fellows in the southern state are making down this way
to Kimberley with some of the Transvaallers, and they are certain to
combine at Bloemfontein, coming across country by train. The remainder
go east to Natal. That leaves the Vaal River deserted, and that ought
to be my direction. I will wait here till dusk, and then cut straight
to the right into the Orange Free State, and make for the road to
Hoopstad. From there I must manage to get to the neighbourhood of
Reitzburg, cross the river, and trust to luck to get through the
remaining distance. It will be touch and go, but, dressed as I am, I
ought to have a chance."

And, indeed, looking at Jack anyone might have admitted the same. Clad
in Mr Hunter's old tweed suit, which was a size or two too big for him
across the shoulders and round the waist, but all too short at wrists
and ankles, he looked for all the world like the average Boer. Beneath
his trousers he wore a pair of high riding-boots, round his neck was a
blue woollen scarf, and on his head a dilapidated and weather-beaten
felt hat. Over his left shoulder was a bandolier filled with
cartridges, and hitched over the other, and drawn tight against his back
so that the butt swung well free of his saddle, was his Lee-Metford
rifle. In addition he carried a water-bottle, a mackintosh sheet, with
a hole in the middle through which he could put his head, and his Mauser
pistol, which was comfortably hidden away in its old position.

Extra shoes, or implements for putting them on to his ponies, were not
wanted, for in addit