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 CHAPTER I

THE BATTERIES ON THE REEF

October, 1908. This is written in Johannesburg. The Fort, used as the prison, with its great mounds of earth, originally piled up by the Dutch after the Jameson Raid, and garrisoned to overawe the City, crowns the hill above. The pleasure grounds of "The Wanderers" lie below, while between and over the lines of gum-trees which guard "The Wanderers", one can see the towers and roofs of Johannesburg. The distant scene is mellowed by a haze of smoke, and the sounds of the City hardly reach so far as this. But even now the roar of the Batteries along the Reef, like the roar of surf breaking on a distant shore, attracts the ear. At night it comes nearer. On some cold nights when the wind blows from the Mines, the sound is like