of any British troops in the vicinity,
thus enabling him to change his direction and suit his action with
calmness and deliberation. These screens were always composed of picked
men.

L'ENVOI.

With the crossing of the Riet the history of this De Wet hunt ceases,
for everything came to pass precisely as the brigadier had foreseen.
The brigade arrived at Kalabas bridge before daybreak, prepared, if a
tangible enemy was still in front, to take up the running again and
pursue the line to an end, no matter the cost.[42] But the soft ground
on the far side of the river gave evidence of thirty trails. The
commando had scattered to the winds, and as, with cunning foresight,
De Wet and his following had removed every living soul, Boer or
Kaffir, from the vicinity of the bridge, no evidence of his presence
remained. To pursue a fugitive in a solitary Cape cart with a brigade
would have been absurd, and so, when five miles on at Openbaar there
was no sign of the solitary tracks again converging, the chase was
abandoned, and the brigade halted to await the arrival of its mule and
ox convoy. That evening Plumer, who had detrained at Jagersfontein
road, crossed the Kalabas bridge and reported Haig to be in rear of
him at the Spitz Kopjes. It will be seen therefore that Plumer was
twenty-four hours too late,--through no fault of his, be it said, but
simply because he made the journey from Orange River station by train.
Plumer pushed on upon the conjectured De Wet trail, which he still
considered hot enough to follow. He lost it, as the brigadier had
foreseen, in the vicinity of Abraham's Kraal. The new cavalry brigade
moved more slowly into Bloemfontein by way of Petrusburg and the
historic field of Driefontein.

At Bloemfontein some changes took place in the staff and composition
of the brigade, and the writer of this narrative, to his infinite
regret, severed his connection with the brigade. He had been promoted
into a new battalion which was being raised at home, and after twenty
months his turn had come to say good-bye to the veldt. As the
brigadier bade him farewell in the Bloemfontein Club he clapped him
good-naturedly on the back, saying, "I believe that it is all a hoax
this story of yours about instructions to proceed home by the first
transport. I don't believe that you will ever get farther South than
that farm at Richmond Road!"

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[42] The orders issued this night to the brigade w