at a huge hippopotamus hiding in a deep pool close to the opposite
bank. Every time the poor brute put its nose above the surface of the
water half a dozen bullets splashed all around it though apparently
without effect. The Grenadier officers pronounced such proceedings
cruel and cowardly, but were without authority to put a stop to it.
The crocodile is deemed lawful sport because it endangers life, but
the Hippo. Transvaal law protects, because it rarely does harm, and is
growing rarer year by year. I ventured therefore to tell these
Colonials that their sportsmanship was as bad as their marksmanship,
and that the pleasure which springs from inflicting profitless pain
was an unsoldierly pursuit; but I preached to deaf ears, and when soon
after our camp was broken up that Hippo. was still their target.

[Sidenote: _A Via Dolorosa._]

On the second day of our brief stay at Koomati Poort, I crossed the
splendid seven spanned bridge over the Koomati River, and noticed that
the far end was guarded by triple lines of barbed wire, nor was other
evidence lacking that the Boers purposed to give us a parting blizzard
under the very shadow of the Portuguese frontier flags.

Then came a sight not often surpassed since Napoleon's flight from
Moscow. Right up to the Portuguese frontier the slopes of the railway
line were strewn with every imaginable and unimaginable form of loot
and wreckage, flung out of the trains as they flew along by the
frightened burghers. Telegraph instruments, crutches, and rocking
chairs, frying pans and packets of medicinal powders, wash-hand basins
and tins of Danish butter lay there in wild profusion; likewise a
homely wooden box that looked up at me and said "Eat Quaker Oats."

At one point I found a great pile of rifles over which paraffin had
been freely poured and then set on fire. Hundreds more, broken and
scattered, were flung in all directions. Then, too, I saw cases of
dynamite, live shells of every sort and size, and piles of boxes on
which was painted

"_Explosive_ Safety Cartridges
Supplied by Vickers, Maxim & Co.; for the use of
the Government of the South African Republic."

Likewise boxes of ammunition, broken and unbroken bearing the brand of
"Kynoch Brothers, Birmingham" were there in piles; and it was while
some men of the Gordons were superintending the destruction of this
ammunition that a terrific explosion occurred a few days later by