her Boers, doubtless feeling
the sting of the blow as keenly as the recipient, separated the pair
before the unarmed Englishman found the ruffian's throat. But the
blow had been struck,--an unarmed prisoner of officer rank had been
chastised, an act of savagery fit to rank with the cold-blooded murder
of an envoy. Yet the day will doubtless come when ignorant English
people will vie with each other to do honour to the man who struck the
miscreant blow. They will be persons ignorant of the feeling which
permeated the army in South Africa. As the news spread round the camp,
by common consent it was agreed that De Wet should never be handed up
alive if it fell to the lot of the New Cavalry Brigade to bring him to
his knees.

In obedience to the superior command, the whole brigade in the
afternoon sauntered on the four miles set down in the general's
message. The day had been a repetition of the one which had preceded
it--one of those burning karoo afternoons, which seem to sap the very
soul out of all things living. The feeling of dejection which pervaded
the staff seemed to have communicated itself to the whole column, and
the New Cavalry Brigade slunk rather than marched into camp. It was
not a cheerful camping-ground--a solitary farm-house of the poorest
construction, and two shallow, slimy pools of water were the only
attractions which it could claim. The men soberly fixed their
horse-lines, and rolled over to sweat out the trials of the heat until
sundown. The brigadier, who was still in his Achilles mood, retired to
his waggon. The new brigade-major, who was the only man with any
spirits left at all, busied himself with arranging for the
night-pickets and nursing the Mount Nelson Light Horse. But over a
bowl of tea, which the mess-servants arranged by four o'clock, the
brigadier seemed to revive; and he had just become approachable when
the colonel of the newly arrived contingent sauntered up to the
mess-waggon,--a big, rather ungainly man, who arrived with all the
self-assurance of one in authority.

_Colonel_ (_looking round the group of officers at tea and singling
out the Brigade-Major, whom he knew_). "Which is the brigadier?"

_Brigadier_ (_who had totalled the new-comer's checks in one brief
glance_). "I am that unfortunate. What can I do for you?"

_C._ (_saluting casually_) "Glad to meet you, sir; I thought that I
would come round to introduce myself--especially as I have some bad
news!"

_B._ "A trul