cooking and eating their suppers, or
smoking in moody, muttering groups. All was framed by the triangular
doorway of the tent, in which two ragged, bearded men sat nursing their
rifles and gazing at their captives in silence. Nor was it till my
companions prepared to sleep that the stolid guards summoned the energy
and wit to ask, in struggling English (for these were real veldt
Boers), the inevitable question, 'And after all, what are we fighting
for? Why is there this war?' But I was tired of arguing, so I said, 'It
is the will of God,' and turned to rest with a more confident feeling
than the night before, for I felt that these men were wearying of the
struggle.

To rest but not to sleep, for the knowledge that the British lines at
Ladysmith lay only five miles away filled my brain with hopes and plans
of escape. I had heard it said that all Dutchmen slept between 12 and 2
o'clock, and I waited, trusting that our sentries would observe the
national custom. But I soon saw that I should have been better situated
with the soldiers. We three officers were twenty yards from the laager,
and around our little tent, as I learned by peering through a rent in
the canvas, no less than four men were posted. At intervals they were
visited or relieved, at times they chatted together; but never for a
minute was their vigilance relaxed, and the continual clicking of the
Mauser breech bolts, as they played with their rifles, unpleasantly
proclaimed their attention. The moon was full and bright, and it was
obvious that no possible chance of success awaited an attempt.

With the soldiers the circumstances were more favourable. Their tent
stood against the angle of the laager, and although the sentries watched
the front and sides it seemed to me that a man might crawl through the
back, and by walking boldly across the laager itself pass safely out
into the night. It was certainly a road none would expect a fugitive to
take; but whatever its chances it was closed to me, for the guard was
changed at midnight and a new sentry stationed between our tent and
those near the laager.

I examined him through the torn tent. He was quite a child--a boy of
about fourteen--and needless to say appreciated the importance of his
duties. He played this terrible game of soldiers with all his heart and
soul; so at last I abandoned the idea of flight and fell asleep.

In the morning, before the sun was up, the Commandant Davel came to
rouse us. The pr