Beyond this was the open street.

To scale the wall was not difficult; the real danger lay in the fact
that at no time were the sentries farther away than fifteen yards,
and the chance of being shot by one or both of them was excellent.
To a brother officer Churchill confided his purpose, and together
they agreed that some night when the sentries had turned from the
dark spot on the wall they would scale it and drop among the
bushes in the garden. After they reached the garden, should they
reach it alive, what they were to do they did not know. How they
were to proceed through the streets and out of the city, how they
were to pass unchallenged under its many electric lights and before
the illuminated shop windows, how to dodge patrols, and how to
find their way through two hundred and eighty miles of a South
African wilderness, through an utterly unfamiliar, unfriendly, and
sparsely settled country into Portuguese territory and the coast,
they left to chance. But with luck they hoped to cover the distance
in a fortnight, begging corn at the Kaffir kraals, sleeping by day,
and marching under cover of the darkness.

They agreed to make the attempt on the 11th of December, but on
that night the sentries did not move from the only part of the wall
that was in shadow. On the night following, at the last moment,
something delayed Churchill's companion, and he essayed the
adventure alone. He writes: "Tuesday, the 12th! Anything was
better than further suspense. Again night came. Again the dinner
bell sounded. Choosing my opportunity, I strolled across the
quadrangle and secreted myself in one of the offices. Through a
chink I watched the sentries. For half an hour they remained stolid
and obstructive. Then suddenly one turned and walked up to his