Every effort was made to find Dr. Wolff, but he—­in common with others—­believing that there would be no move for a week, was away.  This telegram was, to say the least of it, disquieting.  It showed, so it was thought, that as late as Sunday morning Dr. Jameson could not have received the countermands by Messrs. Heany and Holden, and it indicated that it must have been a near thing stopping him before he actually crossed the border.  As a matter of fact Major Heany reached Dr. Jameson at noon on Sunday; but Capt.  Holden had arrived the night before.

Shortly after noon Mr. Abe Bailey received and showed to others a telegram purporting to come from ‘Godolphin,’ Capetown, to the following effect:  ’The veterinary surgeon says the horses are now all right; he started with them last night; will reach you on Wednesday; he says he can back himself for seven hundred.’  By the light of subsequent events the telegram is easily interpreted, but as Mr. Bailey said he could not even guess who ‘Godolphin’ might be, the message remained a puzzle.  That it had some reference to Dr. Jameson was at once guessed, indeed Mr. Bailey would not have shown it to others concerned in the movement did he not himself think so.  The importance and significance of the message entirely depended upon who ‘Godolphin’ was, and it afterwards transpired that the sender was Dr. Rutherfoord Harris, who states that he took the first and safest means of conveying the news that Dr. Jameson had actually started in spite of all.  Mysterious and unintelligible as it was the telegram caused the greatest uneasiness among the few who saw it, for it seemed to show that an unknown someone in Capetown was under the impression that Dr. Jameson had started.  The Reformers however still rejected the idea that he would do anything so mad and preposterous, and above all they were convinced that had he started they would not be left to gather the fact from the ambiguous phrases of an unknown person.

All doubts however were set at rest when between four and half-past four on Monday afternoon Mr. A.L.  Lawley came hurriedly into the room where several of the leaders were met, saying, ’It is all up, boys.  He has started in spite of everything.  Read this!’ and at the same time throwing on the table the following telegram from Mafeking:  ’The contractor has started on the earthworks with seven hundred boys; hopes to reach terminus on Wednesday.’

The Reformers realized perfectly well the full significance of Dr. Jameson’s action; they realized that even if he succeeded in reaching Johannesburg, he, by taking the initiative, seriously impaired the justice of the Uitlanders’ cause—­indeed, put them hopelessly in the wrong.  Apart from the moral or political aspects of the question there was the fact that, either through mistake or by fatuous impulse, Dr. Jameson had plunged them into a crisis for which as he knew they were insufficiently provided and prepared, and at the same time destroyed the one