As the Intelligence officer realised the truth
great tears welled up to his eyes.

* * * * *

It was midnight before the mess servants could turn out a meal at
Brandewijnskuil for the staff. Two doleful candles but added to the
depression bred of the hour and the disappointment which was uppermost
in every mind. We had had our chance and failed. The brigadier alone
was philosophic: his natural gaiety would not allow of depression: his
manly spirit would not collapse against the ruling of the laws of
chance.

_Brigadier._ "Wake up, you coves, and come and have some dinner. We
have lost ole man De Wet; but that is no reason for you all to behave
as if we were in for a funeral. Thank Heaven that you are alive. You
would probably have all been scuppered if we had got up with the ole
man. He would have fought until he was blue in the face!"

_Brigade-Major._ "I've got the orders out, sir. Start at 3 A.M.!"

_Brigadier._ "That's all right, but we won't see any more of De Wet.
We were too hot on him to-day. All we shall find when we cross the
Riet at daybreak to-morrow will be _spoor_ leading in every direction.
They will dissolve to a certainty. But though we have failed, we have
had a run for our money, and finished a d----d good second. But no
maps and no guide are big things as penalties go, and, all considered,
I think that the 'crush' has run devilish well. What have your
prisoners got to say, Mr Intelligence?"

But Mr Intelligence, having drunk his soup, was sound asleep in his
blankets....

FOOTNOTES:

[40] Another curious episode in this strange campaign can be observed
here. We had been in nominal possession of the Southern Free State for
many months, during a considerable period of which the local
administration had been administered by British agents. Yet throughout
this period Boer landrosts were also appointed, and whenever a commando
strong enough to assert the Orange Free State authority was in the
vicinity, immediately took over their duties. Often, it is believed,
the same men acted for both belligerents. When Judge Hertzog made his
tour of the South-Western Free State immediately before entering upon
his invasion of the Colony, he reinstated the Boer administration in
all the southern townships.

[41] De Wet never moved without an advance-, flank-, and rear-guard,
removed from him to a distance of about six to eight miles. This screen
always gave him ample notice