,
who had been up all night attending to his own and our wounded. It was a
rough-and-ready kind of first aid that he gave; a whisky-bottle filled
with carbolic dressing hung from his saddle on one side, and on the
other were rolls of lint and bandages; but I believe that the ambulance
equipment in the laager was thoroughly complete. He told me of one of
our men who had been wounded in the thigh, and had been seen late the
night before crawling about on the ground; but when they had brought
back a stretcher for him they had not been able to find him. The doctor
thought he knew where he was likely to be, so I volunteered to go with
him and search the place. The doctor and I, therefore, with one other
Boer, rode away towards the west.

The wind was blowing strong from the west, choking down our voices as we
tried to speak while we rode; and therefore we had no idea until some
hours later of the excitement that was caused by our departure. It
seemed that the Commandant, who had been engaged in conversation with
our doctor, had ordered that no one should advance any farther into the
Boer position, and that the empty ambulances must be sent on to receive
the dead and wounded. Indeed we heard afterwards that the friendly
outpost which we first encountered had got into very hot water for
allowing us to pass. When I galloped off, therefore, I was unconsciously
disobeying a very important order, and several of the Boers and our own
party shouted after me that I must come back; but riding against a stiff
breeze none of us could hear a word, and we were so soon out of sight
and over the ridge that the Boers, with a shrug, left me to my fate.
Pollock called the second in command (a Scotchman, I regret to say) to
witness that I had not heard the order, and he promised to intercede on
my behalf with the Commandant, who was a son of General Cronje of
Paardeberg fame.

I had now better return to my own adventures. With my two companions I
soon reached a rocky plateau, where the horses had to choose their steps
carefully amongst the sharp stones, and searching thus for about an hour
we had a long and interesting conversation. I remember asking one of
them what his real feeling was about their chance of success.

"We shall win," he said, with that simple confidence, born of ignorance
and self-trust, which is often a dangerous element in a force opposed to
us. "Lord Roberts with all his army cannot leave Bloemfontein; we oppose
him ther