LINDLEY TO HEILBRON


Lindley and Heilbron were each in telegraphic communication with all the
other towns still in our possession, and consequently also with each
other; but no telegraph line ran between the two. A message from one to
the other had to travel _viâ_ Johannesburg and Kroonstad, involving a
delay of several hours. It was our task to make good this missing link.
Haste was required, for the British were already marching on Kroonstad,
whence the Government was preparing to retire, ostensibly to Lindley,
but in reality to Heilbron.

Unfortunately the material wherewith the new line was to be built had
not yet arrived from the Transvaal. The inspector decided not to wait,
but to build the line without it.

"Build a line without material? Impossible," you say. Not at all. You
forget the fences; we did not.

Our first care was to obtain a list of those farms along the road whose
fences joined. This did not take many hours. Being joined here by a
lineman, who had charge of half a dozen natives and a waggon, we loaded
our luggage on the latter, as well as a sack or two of meal--the only
foodstuff we could obtain, and began work, each armed with a spanner and
a couple of iron tent-pegs.

The fences were in bad repair, many of the stone poles having fallen
down and the wires being broken and tangled every few hundred yards.