cyclist. I've got eight medals at home for
cycling.'

'How will you like a new one--with the Queen's head on it?'

His eye brightened.

'Ah,' he said, 'I should treasure that more than all the other
eight--even more than the twenty-mile championship one.'

So we rattled back to Estcourt through the twilight; and the long car,
crowded with brown-clad soldiers who sprawled smoking on the floor or
lounged against the sides, the rows of loopholes along the iron walls,
the black smoke of the engine bulging overhead, the sense of headlong
motion, and the atmosphere of war made the volunteer seem perhaps more
than he was; and I thought him a true and valiant man, who had come
forward in time of trouble quietly and soberly to bear his part in
warfare, and who was ready, if necessary, to surrender his humble life
in honourably sustaining the quarrel of the State. Nor do I care to
correct the impression now.

CHAPTER VI

DISTANT GUNS

Estcourt: November 10, 1899.

When I awoke yesterday morning there was a strange tremor in the air. A
gang of platelayers and navvies were making a new siding by the station,
and sounds of hammering also came from the engine shed. But this tremor
made itself felt above these and all the other noises of a waking camp,
a silent thudding, a vibration which scarcely seemed to constitute what
is called sound, yet which left an intense impression on the ear. I went
outside the tent to listen. Morning had just broken, and the air was
still and clear. What little wind there was came from the northwards,
from the direction of Ladysmith, and I knew that it carried to Estcourt
the sound of distant cannon. When once the sounds had been localised it
was possible to examine them more carefully. There were two kinds of
reports: one almost a boom, the explosion evidently of some very heavy
piece of ordnance; the other only a penetrating whisper, that of
ordinary field guns. A heavy cannonade was proceeding. The smaller
pieces fired at brief intervals, sometimes three or four shots followed
in quick succession. Every few minutes the heavier gun or guns
intervened. What was happening? We could only try to guess, nor do we
yet know whether our guesses were right. It seems to me, however, that
Sir George White must have made an attack at dawn on some persecuting
Boer battery, and so brought on a general action.

Later in the day we rode out to find some nearer listening point. The
whole force was ma