Krankuil and Orange River Station, with Thorneycroft’s column hard upon his heels.  The Boer leader was now more anxious to escape from the Colony than ever he had been to enter it, and he rushed distractedly from point to point, endeavouring to find a ford over the great turbid river which cut him off from his own country.  Here he was joined by Hertzog’s commando with a number of invaluable spare horses.  It is said also that he had been able to get remounts in the Hopetown district, which had not been cleared—­an omission for which, it is to be hoped, someone has been held responsible.  The Boer ponies, used to the succulent grasses of the veld, could make nothing of the rank Karoo, and had so fallen away that an enormous advantage should have rested with the pursuers had ill luck and bad management not combined to enable the invaders to renew their mobility at the very moment when Plumer’s horses were dropping dead under their riders.

The Boer force was now so scattered that, in spite of the advent of Hertzog, De Wet had fewer men with him than when he entered the Colony.  Several hundreds had been taken prisoners, many had deserted, and a few had been killed.  It was hoped now that the whole force might be captured, and Thorneycroft’s, Crabbe’s, Henniker’s, and other columns were closing swiftly in upon him, while the swollen river still barred his retreat.  There was a sudden drop in the flood, however; one ford became passable, and over it, upon the last day of February, De Wet and his bedraggled, dispirited commando escaped to their own country.  There was still a sting in his tail, however; for upon that very day a portion of his force succeeded in capturing sixty and killing or wounding twenty of Colenbrander’s new regiment, Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts.  On the other hand, De Wet was finally relieved upon the same day of all care upon the score of his guns, as the last of them was most gallantly captured by Captain Dallimore and fifteen Victorians, who at the same time brought in thirty-three Boer prisoners.  The net result of De Wet’s invasion was that he gained nothing, and that he lost about four thousand horses, all his guns, all his convoy, and some three hundred of his men.

Once safely in his own country again, the guerilla chief pursued his way northwards with his usual celerity and success.  The moment that it was certain that De Wet had escaped, the indefatigable Plumer, wiry, tenacious man, had been sent off by train to Springfontein, while Bethune’s column followed direct.  This latter force crossed the Orange River bridge and marched upon Luckhoff and Fauresmith.  At the latter town they overtook Plumer, who was again hard upon the heels of De Wet.  Together they ran him across the Riet River and north to Petrusburg, until they gave it up as hopeless upon finding that, with only fifty followers, he had crossed the Modder River at Abram’s Kraal.  There they abandoned the chase and fell back upon Bloemfontein to refit and prepare for a fresh effort to run down their elusive enemy.