n a
military camp, after "last post" and "lights out" have been sounded, no
bugle save that which sounds an alarm may be blown until the hour of
reveille. The soldiers under the hill had been trumpeted to their last
sleep; in a few hours I should hear the morning call: why should they
never hear it again? Suddenly my irrational complaint was silenced as
certain words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians reverberated in my mind.
After all, it was well; one night was but a little longer than the
other; and, those words being true, my troopers should wake to a
familiar sound.

PART V

WITH THE FLYING COLUMN TO MAFEKING

XVIII

A STRATEGIC SECRET

It was now more than six weeks since we had hurried from Bloemfontein to
be in time for the expected operations for the relief of Mafeking. When
Lord Methuen had moved from Boshof we had been sure that Mafeking was
the goal, and I think that Lord Methuen himself had at least expected to
conduct a turning movement on the Boer position at Fourteen Streams. It
is easy to see now, when even Lord Roberts's strong march on Pretoria
has been harassed and his communications interrupted, why such a
movement of Methuen's small force could not have been successful; but we
did not see it then. There was a great dearth of information, and the
secret of the Flying Column was kept perfectly until within a few days
of its departure. While we were waiting at Boshof in the blank days that
followed the rear-guard engagement everyone suspected his fellow of some
secret information, and men's most trivial movements were elaborately
construed into indications that they meditated some independent action.
Even Lord Methuen was so much in the dark that he used to say he liked
to see the correspondents coming, as he supposed it meant that he should
have something to do. Those of us who were there knew really nothing,
and had only come prompted by a vague instinct that something was in the
air.

Unavoidable as the delay in despatching a column to the relief of
Mafeking seems to have been, I think that there was one moment at which,
if Lord Methuen had had a slightly stronger force under his command, the
course of the campaign on the north-west frontier might have been
changed, and Mafeking relieved by pressure from the south. After my
accidental discovery of the Boer laager near Spitz Kop there was a long
discussion by Lord Methuen and his staff of the possibilities of
surrounding and att