It was supposed then to be suicidal for an army to pass by a
strong fortress, even if it were invested."

"That was how the Boers made so much trouble for the English, too,
wasn't it?"

"Certainly it was. The English expected the Boers to sit back and wait
to be attacked. Instead of that the Boers swept down at once on both
sides of the continent, and besieged Kimberly and Ladysmith. That was
how they were able to prolong the war. They took the offensive, in spite
of being outnumbered, and while they could never have really hoped to
win, they put up a wonderful fight."

"Well, I suppose we'll know in a day or so what General Harkness plans
to do."

"Hardly! We're not connected with the staff in any way, and he'll
discuss his plans only with his own staff officers. He has an excellent
reputation. He commanded a brigade in the Porto Rico campaign, you know,
and did very well, though that campaign was a good deal of a joke. But
one reason that it was a joke was that it was so well planned by General
Miles and the others under him that there was no use, at any stage of
it, in a real resistance on the part of the Spaniards. They were beaten
before a shot was fired, and they had sense enough not to waste lives
uselessly."

"Then they weren't cowardly?"

"No, indeed, and don't let anyone tell you they were, either. The
Spaniards were a brave and determined enemy, but they were so crippled
and hampered by orders from home that they were unable to make much of a
showing in the field. We'll learn some time, I'm afraid, that we won
that war too easily. Overconfidence is our worst national fault. Just
because we never have been beaten, we think we're invincible. I hope the
lesson, when it does come, and if it does come, won't be too costly."

The run to Guernsey was not a very long one. The train arrived there at
four o'clock in the afternoon, and the Scouts, armed only with their
clasp knives, Scout axes and sticks, lined up on the platform in
excellent order. Dick Crawford, who ranked as a lieutenant for the
encampment, took command, while Durland reported the arrival to Colonel
Henry, as he had been ordered to do.

Half a dozen extra sidings had been laid for the occasion by the
railroad, and on these long trains, each carrying militia, had been
shunted. Clad all in khaki, or, rather, in the substitute adopted by the
American army as more serviceable and less easy to distinguish at a
distance, a stout cloth of olive d