General de la Rey arrived in Pretoria. General Beyers met him and asked
him to go immediately with him to Potchefstroom.
The car came within sight of Johannesburg. A police cordon had been
thrown around the town for the purpose of capturing three desperadoes,
known as the "Foster gang," who were trying to escape in a motor car.
The police were instructed to stop all motors and to examine in
particular any car containing three men.
Beyers's car held three men. It was racing at high speed. It was, of
course, challenged by the police and ordered to stop. But Beyers knew
nothing of the "Foster gang" and the reason for the police cordon. Keyed
up to the highest pitch of nervous tension, his immediate conclusion was
that his plot had been discovered and that the police were after him. He
believed he was trapped.
Meanwhile, Major Kemp at Potchefstroom grew more and more anxious as the
hours slipped by. Midnight came, and no news of the two Generals. About
3 o'clock in the morning, says the report, an officer sharing the tent
of a Lieutenant Colonel by the name of Kock, who was Kemp's confidant,
was awakened by the entrance of a man. It proved to be Major Kemp. He
leaned over Kock's bed and whispered something in his ear.
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