78 Pages - The Black Vault

First“Any fool can get into a hole. ” --O/d Chinese Proverb‘;/f left to you, for detente make spades. “’--Bdgege MaximIfeltlonely, andnotalittle sad, as I stood on the bankof the river near Duffer’s Drift and watched the reddust haze, raised by the southward departing columnin the distance, turn slowly into gold as it hung in theafternoon sunlight. It was just three o’clock, and hereI was on the banks of the Silliaasvogel river, left behindby my column with a party of fifty NCOS andmen to hold the drift, It was an important ford, becauseit was the only one across which wheeledtraffic could pass for some miles up or down the river.(see Map 1)The river was a sluggish stream, not now in flood,crawling along at the very bottom of its bed betweensteep banks which were almost vertical, or at any\rate too steep for wagons anywhere except at thedrift itself. The banks from the river edge to theirtops and some distance outwards, were covered with)7419ilL.