chance--may lead to irretrievable disaster.
Men who can face death without flinching in the light of day often
quail at the thought of it in the darkness. The mental tension is such
that once men have been overwhelmed during a night attack, like the
beaten ram of the arena, it must be weeks, even months, before they
can be trusted to face a similar situation. No man who has ever taken
part in night operations will forget his first sensations. The
recurring misgivings bred of intense excitement. The misty
hallucinations, outcome of abnormal tension. The awful stillness of
the night. The muffled sounds of moving men, exaggerated by the
painful silence of the surroundings. You long--with a yearning which
can only be felt, not described--that something may happen to break
the overpowering monotony of this prelude to success or disaster. Some
outlet to your pent-up feelings. If only some one would shout, or the
enemy surprise you, or--thank God! relief has come,--it has begun to
rain!

As the little column of adventurers from the New Cavalry Brigade
trudged on in ghostly silence, great drops of icy rain began to
fall--harbingers of a coming storm. A shudder of satisfaction passed
through the ranks, from the "Robber" leading the forlorn-hope, with
the Intelligence officer and the leader of the Tigers beside him, to
little Meadows and his troop of the 20th Dragoons in rear. Then,
preceded by a brief ten minutes of inky darkness, the storm broke. It
does not rain in South Africa--water is voided from above in solid
sheets. A wall of beating rain pours down, obliterating the landscape
by day, intensifying the darkness by night. The column came to a halt;
the horses, unable to face the downpour, in spite of bridle, bit, and
spur, swing round their tails to meet it. And before a collar can be
turned or a coat adjusted every man in the column is drenched to the
skin. For ten minutes perhaps the deluge lasts, then fades away as
rapidly as it came. And as one by one the misty features of veldt
reappear, you can hear the passing rainstorm receding from you, still
churning the veldt surface into sticky pulp. The officers re-form the
column, and the journey is continued. But though the respite has been
short, it has been valuable; local inconvenience acts as a sedative to
the nerves. Besides, there is less silence. The track that was parched
and spongy has now become soft and slippery. Horses flounder and
slide. Wet mackintoshes swish