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This occurred about three o'clock in the afternoon, and when at length we were all once more safe on solid ground we were, horses as well as men, so utterly fagged out that there was nothing for it but to off-saddle for the remainder of the day in order to recover. A good night's rest, however, completely restored us all, and enabled us to resume our search on the following morning.
Existence was just a dateless alternation of light and darkness, of saddle-up and off-saddle, of cossack-post, of thinking about water and of yearning with every fibre of one's being for the ineffable boon of a long sleep. It will be seen that the key to the advance over the Namib Desert was the Swakop River.
But I was still thinking of her as I rode northward through the deepening dusk. A great weariness possessed me, no doubt fatigue from the day's excitement and anxiety. Also, for some hours, that curious battle-hunger had been gnawing at my belly so that I had liked to starve there in my saddle ere Boyd gave the signal to off-saddle for the night.
I learned also that it is arranged for them to leave the Heer Roozen to-morrow at dawn, and to travel homewards by the Tiger's Nek, in which they will off-saddle about two hours before mid-day, for I forgot to say that they have two servants with them to see to their horses." "That makes six in all," said Swart Piet, "of whom two are women, whereas we are twenty.
They were to off-saddle under some high kopjes about ten miles from town; they were to have a picnic and an amazing view. I could not go myself, as I had an appointment to keep. But I sent two Mashona boys to be their retinue; one of them was Johannes, my own right hand at home. I solemnly entrusted the strangers and their steeds to his keeping.
General Froneman gave me to understand that it was necessary to off-saddle the horses, and to give them a long rest, as he had been riding without any break since the previous evening.
You can't play with yourself here as you can on the high veld, where an hour or two of sleep a day will do. On-saddle and off-saddle, in-span and outspan, plenty to eat and a little sleep; and the air does the rest. It has been a worrying time." "The Jameson Raid and all the rest?" "Particularly all the rest. I feel easier in my mind about Dr. Jim and the others.
A mounted column under Gough and Stewart had been sent out from Dundee across the Buffalo to bring away a convoy from Vryheid. Gough soon came into touch with a body of the enemy. It was, he thought, only a local commando, and when he saw it off-saddle he left Stewart in support and went out to surprise it.
After Jess had been set free by the Boers outside Hans Coetzee's place, John was sharply ordered to dismount and off-saddle his horse. This he did with the best grace that he could muster, and the horse was knee-haltered and let loose to feed. It was then indicated to him that he was to enter the house, and this he also did, closely attended by two of the Boers.
English or Australian it made very little matter they were enemies. I had no need to give the order to off-saddle, the burghers did it at once of their own accord. But before we were ready for him, the enemy opened fire on us from the very ridge on which our outpost had been stationed.
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