A Dispatch Rider’s Adventure.

Te Aroha News, Volume XVI, Issue 22214, 17 March 1900, Page 3

A Dispatch Rider’s Adventure.

A despatch rider, wlio was taking news from Kimberlry to the commanding officer at Cape Town, recently had an exoiting experience in his ride across country in evading the Boor spies and soldiers. The town of Kimberley was closely invested by the eneim% and every effort was made by the Boers to prevent the English communicating with the forces outside. The dispatch rider, who knows the country well, determined to rid e through the Boer forces. Ho succeeded in making his wax' out of 4he town, but when about a mile on the road ho was discovered by Boer scouts, and it was onty by riding at break-neck speed that be succeeded in eluding them. Beaching a thick growth < f bu-h, ho hid there till the night fell, when ho made his way to a lonely farm in the lvpe of securing a fresh his own being exhausted. The farmer was afraid to assist him, and he rode across country to another farm, equally isolated, where his sweetheart was living. Approaching the house cautiously, he succeeded in attracting the attention of the giil, who, to his dismay, told him that the kitchen of the farmhouse was filled with Boors, and he must'fly for his life. He at once rode away, but in descending a hill his horse was so overcome with fatigue that it fell and rolled ovor him, and in extricating himself from his dangerous position two fingers of his right hand were torn off. Bandaging his wound with his pugaree, he toiled slowly r on until daylight, when he was successful in obtaining a fresh horse from a man whom he paid for i\ Upon this ho rode on t > Do Aar. whei’o, when he had delivered his despatches, he fell to the ground fainting from loss of blood and fat'gue. Ho had neither to d nor water till : ho time he had been in the saddle.