At sunrise the others returned, saying that the Standerton laager had moved much higher up, and that the Johannesburg laager was the next on the list.  They accordingly marched in that direction, laying the cable as they went, past precipices and over mountain gorges.  I followed on, testing and repairing, very tedious work in the burning sun.  Fortunately I was able to buy a little fresh milk from a native, which refreshed me immensely.  The waggons were still missing, so we had very little food.

At midnight the cable led me up a high hill, so steep that the pony almost fell over backwards as I led him up the face of it.  Right on the top lived an old native, who, hearing the barking of his dogs, rushed out armed with an assegai, ready to defend his eyrie against all comers.  I persuaded him to take me straight to the Johannesburg laager, where a good night’s rest made all right again.

The next morning communication was established with headquarters, and I had the pleasure of eating a decent breakfast with Ben Viljoen, then commandant, now general, whose acquaintance I had made during the Swaziland expedition.

A fiery politician and a reckless writer, his pet aversions were Hollanders and Englishmen, and it was hard to say which he detested the most.  Brave and straightforward, he was most popular amongst his men, but the official, non-fighting, salary-pocketing element bore him no love.  General in charge of these positions was kind-hearted, energetic Tobias Smuts, of Ermelo.

During the night Louis Botha arrived here, accompanied only by his aide and his secretary.  He, Smuts, their staffs, all slept in one small tent on the hard ground, and with hardly room enough to turn round in.  Truly our chiefs were anything but carpet knights!

For a couple of days my office was under a waggon, then my tent arrived, and soon everything was in full swing.  One afternoon I was honoured by a visit from a Hollander Jew and Transvaal journalist, whose articles had more power to sting the Uitlanders than almost anything one could mention on the spur of the moment.

We drank tea together and discussed the probability of our camp being bombarded, standing, as it did, in full view of the hill whereon the British cannon had been dragged a few days before.  He had just raised the cup to his lips when a well-known sound was heard—­the shriek of an approaching shell.  Nearer and louder it came, till finally—­bang!—­the shell burst not a hundred yards away.  A young lineman, who had been listening with all his soul and ever wider stretching eyes, now gave an unearthly yell and almost sprang through the top of the tent, knocking over the unhappy journalist and sending the hot tea streaming down his neck.  The youth’s exit was somewhat unceremonious.

The office was hastily removed to the high bank of the adjacent stream.  Whilst this operation was going on the instrument buzzed out a message ordering me to leave immediately for the Spion Kop office.  I at once said au revoir, handing over to my assistant the charge of the office, river bank and all, as well as the task of dodging the shells, which continued to fall around.