l boy.

The only remark in the way of comment made by the brigadier was to the
effect that "One only learns by experience." He refused, and doubtless
rightly, to accede to the wishes of others on his staff that the man
should be executed out of hand. He promised to send him back to Cape
Colony, where, doubtless, he would give a satisfactory explanation,
and return again to some position of trust and honour in the British
service.

People in England, and those who have had experience of this
extraordinary campaign, will never realise the extent to which the
British army in South Africa has reposed confidence in knaves and
scoundrels. For one man that may have been shot or hanged, there will
have been a hundred who have gained the confidence of the British to
betray it either to their own use or that of the enemy. No one could
ever know or assess the extent of the knavery which has arisen,
flourished, and grown fat in this long-protracted war. And what a
field for sharps and knaves! Was not the control of the whole country
in the hands of straightforward and fair-thinking English
officers,--men whose word was their bond, and who never thought to
distrust their fellow-men, until their fellow-men thrust their
barefaced iniquities upon them. Believe me, that under the Southern
Cross it is not the Dutch who are vile.

But although we could not hope now to fall upon the arch-guerilla with
the full weight of first surprise, yet from the nature of the
situation in which he had been engaged during the last three weeks his
theatre and resources were of necessity circumscribed. The situation
even yet presented possibilities, and the brigadier settled to remain
longer in Luckhoff than he had originally intended, sending a patrol
to reconnoitre the Orange River. This patrol met with some success. It
was commanded by the same pessimistic subaltern who had commanded the
advance-guard from Richmond Road. Again it was his fortune to chaperon
the Intelligence officer in a quest for information. It was a
fifteen-mile ride to the nearest portion of the river, consequently it
was late in the afternoon when the patrol entered the hilly tracts of
country which covered the immediate approaches to the yellow stream.
As the advance-guard of the party topped a little nek, they rode into
a group of five burghers. The British dragoons had the advantage, as
the burghers had only that moment emerged from the river, which they
had crossed with the