tches of
cultivation or surrounded the droves of goats and cows which fed on the
pasture. The railway ran through the middle of the valley, and I could
watch the passage of the various trains. I counted four passing each
way, and from this I drew the conclusion that the same number would run
by night. I marked a steep gradient up which they climbed very slowly,
and determined at nightfall to make another attempt to board one of
these. During the day I ate one slab of chocolate, which, with the heat,
produced a violent thirst. The pool was hardly half a mile away, but I
dared not leave the shelter of the little wood, for I could see the
figures of white men riding or walking occasionally across the valley,
and once a Boer came and fired two shots at birds close to my
hiding-place. But no one discovered me.

The elation and the excitement of the previous night had burnt away, and
a chilling reaction followed. I was very hungry, for I had had no dinner
before starting, and chocolate, though it sustains, does not satisfy. I
had scarcely slept, but yet my heart beat so fiercely and I was so
nervous and perplexed about the future that I could not rest. I thought
of all the chances that lay against me; I dreaded and detested more than
words can express the prospect of being caught and dragged back to
Pretoria. I do not mean that I would rather have died than have been
retaken, but I have often feared death for much less. I found no comfort
in any of the philosophical ideas which some men parade in their hours
of ease and strength and safety. They seemed only fair-weather friends.
I realised with awful force that no exercise of my own feeble wit and
strength could save me from my enemies, and that without the assistance
of that High Power which interferes in the eternal sequence of causes
and effects more often than we are always prone to admit, I could never
succeed. I prayed long and earnestly for help and guidance. My prayer,
as it seems to me, was swiftly and wonderfully answered, I cannot now
relate the strange circumstances which followed, and which changed my
nearly hopeless position into one of superior advantage. But after the
war is over I shall hope to lengthen this account, and so remarkable
will the addition be that I cannot believe the reader will complain.

The long day reached its close at last. The western clouds flushed into
fire; the shadows of the hills stretched out across the valley. A
ponderous Boer wagg