."

_B._ "Well, sir, leaving De Wet out of the question--I have been
promised a convoy at Strydenburg, and I have yet to pick up my
brigade. A squadron of the 21st Dragoon Guards and the whole of the
Mount Nelson Light Horse, which Plumer has not assimilated, is now
straining every nerve to catch me up."

_G._ "When do you meet your convoy, and how far behind you are your
details?"

(Now the brigadier had invented the convoy on the spur of the moment.
It was true that he had been promised a convoy, but that promise had
not indicated Strydenburg as the rendezvous. But seeing that he had
scored a point he turned at once to the Intelligence officer.)

_B._ "When is our convoy due at Strydenburg?"

_Intelligence Officer._ "Possibly to-morrow evening, sir. The day
after to-morrow at the latest." (Luckily the Intelligence officer had
been following the conversation, and the answer came glibly enough.)

_G._ "H'm, that places another complexion upon it. But it is suicidal,
reckless, to allow convoys to meander about the veldt in this
inconsequent manner. What about your details?"

(The brigadier having struck a "lead," had wasted no time in figuring
out his estimates.)

_B._ "Well, sir, I would suggest that you let me halt here for to-day.
My details are just one day behind me now. They will catch me up
to-morrow. In the meantime I will send a strong patrol--a
reconnaissance rather--into Strydenburg, starting this afternoon, pick
up the convoy, after which I will join you at any point you may
select. I shall then be a useful fighting body; now I am only a gun
escort!"

_G._ "Yes, yes; it would be dangerous for either you or your details
to be wandering about in this disturbed country alone. _I_ agree with
you, Colonel; but you must allow that in view of the present
circumstances it would be inadvisable for us to be caught in detail."

One cannot blind oneself to the fact that all this is very childish.
But then the man who undertakes life in the army must be prepared to
be a schoolboy to the end of his service. It ill becomes a brigadier
or any officer wearing his Majesty's uniform--as the expression
goes--to practise small deceits even to bring about a situation
calculated to be for the public convenience. Yet what other course was
open to the brigadier! For reasons which are evident from his
conversation, his senior had determined not to recognise him as an
independent force, but to hug him until all danger real