it was a miserable night, and the hungry horses had been under saddle,
some of them twenty hours, and were quite done.

'So we waited for the column.

'During the night we could hear natives moving across into the bush
which lay between us and the river. We heard the branches as they pushed
through. After a while Wilson asked me if I could go a little way around
our position and find out what the Kaffirs were doing. I always think he
heard something, but he did not say so. I slipped out and on our right
heard the swirl of boughs and the splash of feet. Circling round for a
little time I came on more Kaffirs. I got so close to them I could touch
them as they passed, but it was impossible to say how many there were,
it was so dark. This I reported to Wilson. Raising his head on his hand
he asked me a few questions, and made the remark that if the column
failed to come up before daylight, "we are in a hard hole," and told me
to go out on the King's spoor and watch for Forbes, so that by no
possibility should he pass us in the darkness. It was now, I should
judge, 1 A.M. on the 4th of December.

[Illustration: 'JUST AS HIS ARM WAS POISED I FIRED']

'I went, and for a long, long time I heard only the dropping of the rain
from the leaves and now and then a dog barking in the scherms, but at
last, just as it got grey in the east, I heard a noise, and placing my
ear close to the ground, made it out to be the tramp of horses. I ran
back to Wilson and said "The column is here."

'We all led our horses out to the King's spoor. I saw the form of a man
tracking. It was Ingram. I gave him a low whistle; he came up, and
behind him rode--not the column, not the Maxims, but just twenty men
under Captain Borrow. It was a terrible moment--"_If_ we were caught
there at dawn"--and already it was getting lighter every minute.

'One of us asked "Where is the column?" to which the reply was, "You see
all there are of us." We answered, "Then you are only so many more men
to die."

'Wilson went aside with Borrow, and there was earnest talk for a few
moments. Presently all the officers' horses' heads were together; and
Captain Judd said in my hearing, "Well, this is the end." And Kurten
said quite quietly, "We shall never get out of this."

'Then Wilson put it to the officers whether we should try and break
through the impis which were now forming up between us and the river, or
whether we would go for the King and sell our lives in tryi