; do I look like an officer and a
gentleman? Nobody could tell what was the original colour of my
khaki; it is simply one mass of mud stains."

"Well, I do think you hardly look like an officer and a
gentleman--that is to say, you would hardly be taken for one at
Aldershot. Fortunately, however, there are no English ladies here
to look at you and, as the blacks don't know what an officer and a
gentleman should be, it doesn't matter in the slightest."

While at Prahsu, there was nothing to do but to speculate as to
what would be the next move. Colonel Willcocks kept his plan to
himself, for information as to our movements reached the enemy in a
most extraordinary manner.

It was a busy camp. Bamboo grass-covered sheds, for stores, were in
course of construction. The engineers were employed in making a
road, to take the stores and troops across the Prah.

Three of the wounded officers--Captain Roupell, Lieutenants
Edwardes and O'Malley--were invalided, and left for home in a
convoy with over a hundred wounded. This was necessary, owing to
the fact that there was no Roentgen apparatus in the colony, and it
was found impossible to discover and extract the slugs with which
the great proportion were wounded.

It was unknown that four hundred men of the West African Regiment,
with nearly twenty officers, and a company from Jebba were on their
way to reinforce them. Three officers were away to raise native
levies in Denkera and Akim, and there were rumours about more
troops from other parts of the world. But the one thing certain was
that some more troops were coming down from Northern Nigeria.

Colonel Burroughs arrived with a strong party, and Lisle and
Hallett prepared to go up again. No resistance was met with, as far
as Fumsu; but it was found that a foot bridge that had been thrown
across the river was washed away, and communication with the other
bank was thus cut off. To the disgust of the officers and men, they
were called out to a false alarm and, when dismissed, went back to
bed grumbling. When they rose again, the men cleaned their arms and
received their pay and rations. The latter amounted to but a pound
of rice a day, but this was subsequently increased. The officers
were little better off, for there was, of course, nothing to buy.

Two companies had gone on in advance to open the main road, find
out the ambushes and stockades, and to join Colonel Wilkinson at
Bekwai. Those who remained in camp had littl