Likewise to left and right, far out on the plain, the
horsemen of the flank guards are scattered in little bands of twos and
threes, cantering along or stopping and spying, sniffing cautiously
round kopjes or peeping into farms, and by-and-by you will probably hear
from one direction or other a few scattered single shots, and yonder two
scouts in the distance, lately advancing so quietly, are now seen to be
turned and galloping back as hard as they can split, while two or three
Mausers crack at them from the sky-line.
It is a pretty sight, from some hill far in advance, to turn back and
watch the army coming into view. You push on, scouts feeling the way, to
occupy some prominent kopje on the line of march, and climbing up and
sitting among the rocks, command with your glasses a view far and wide
over the plain. The air has been very cold and sharp, with an intense
penetrating cold hitherto, but now the sun is shining and its mellow
warmth is instantly felt. The rich pure colour-lines, only seen when the
sun, rising or setting, is low in the sky, lie straightly ruled across
the plain, brown and orange and pale yellow, and in the distance blue.
The ten-mile off rocks look but a mile in this air. Every object,
distant or near, is exact to the least detail. So clear are the outlines
you would think there was no atmosphere here at all, and that you might
be looking out over the unaired landscapes of the moon.
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