We did not know the way to Ladysmith, and we did not then
know whether or not the Boers still occupied Bulwana Mountain. But
we argued that the chances of the Boers having raised the siege were
so good that it was worth risking their not having done so, and being
taken prisoner.
We carried all the tobacco we could pack in our saddle-bags, and
enough food for one day. My chief regret was that my government,
with true republican simplicity, had given me a passport, type-
written on a modest sheet of notepaper and wofully lacking in
impressive seals and coats of arms. I fancied it would look to Boer
eyes like one I might have forged for myself in the writing-room of
the hotel at Cape Town.
We had ridden up Pieter's Hill and scrambled down on its other side
before we learned that the night before Dundonald had raised the
siege. We learned this from long trains of artillery and regiments
of infantry which already were moving forward over the great plain
which lies between Pieter's and Bulwana. We learned it also from the
silence of conscientious, dutiful correspondents, who came galloping
back as we galloped forward, and who made wide detours at sight of
us, or who, when we hailed them, lashed their ponies over the red
rocks and pretended not to hear, each unselfishly turning his back on
Ladysmith in the hope that he might be the first to send word that
the "Doomed City" was relieved.
