Not a Boer was even seen. Nothing. Except, indeed,
large quantities of most delicious and most acceptable oranges, after
eating which the tired troops lay in the rain, which commenced to pour
down, and slept peacefully till the transport came up.

Before we started next morning, a huge herd of blesbok suddenly
appeared on the scene, wildly galloping about in every direction,
being continually brought up by the barbed wire fences of the farms. A
good many were shot, but it was cruel to kill them, or try to, with
hard bullets, and many and many a beast must have got away badly
wounded, whilst the indiscriminate manner in which the sportsmen fired
in all directions was a source of danger, not only to themselves and
the buck, but to the camp as well. One fine old fellow, with a good
head, charged right through the camp, altogether eluding one regiment,
in spite of every variety of missile, from cooking-pots to helmets, to
finally fall a victim in another regiment's lines to a tent-pole.
After which interlude the force marched to Modderfontein.

Next day a helio from Bank directed the column to make its way to that
station, a party of the South Wales Borderers being left behind to
watch the pass at Modderfontein, where they were to have a rough
experience later on. The remainder of the force moved to Bank on the
7th, and marched again the same night for Krugersdorp, making a total
distance of thirty-three miles in the twenty-four hours, a good
wind-up to the three weeks' trek. An enormous number of cattle and
sheep were brought in, but it was the end of the Pochefstroom column,
which was now finally broken up into a number of small posts.

[Illustration: 'The Latest Shave.' Captain G. S. Higginson (mounted)
and Major Bird.]

The regiment camped once more on the same site it had last occupied.

CHAPTER VI.

BURIED TREASURE--THE EASTERN TRANSVAAL--THE KRUGERSDORP DEFENCES.

'They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the
rock for want of a shelter.'--_Job_, xxiv. 8.

By this time we had begun to regard Krugersdorp as our base, and to
look upon our returns to it as more or less getting home. But on this
occasion there was to be no rest of any length. From the plum-bloom
blue of the far Magaliesberg, General Clements' heliograph was
twinkling and blinking for the remainder of his force and more mounted
men. In addition to this Colonel Hicks took out a column. These and
other deductions left