ttending guard
mount. Indeed, the War Office could cover with medals the man who wrote
"The Story of the Malakand Field Force" and "The River War" and still be
in his debt.

In October, 1898, a month after the battle of Omdurman, Churchill
made his debut as a political speaker at minor meetings in Dover and
Rotherhithe. History does not record that these first speeches set fire
to the Channel. During the winter he finished and published his "River
War," and in the August of the following summer, 1899, at a by-election,
offered himself as Member of Parliament for Oldham.

In the _Daily Telegraph_ his letters from the three campaigns in India
and Egypt had made his name known, and there was a general desire to
hear him and to see him. In one who had attacked Kitchener of Khartum,
the men of Oldham expected to find a stalwart veteran, bearded, and with
a voice of command. When they were introduced to a small red-haired boy
with a lisp, they refused to take him seriously. In England youth is an
unpardonable thing. Lately, Curzon, Churchill, Edward Grey, Hugh Cecil,
and others have made it less reprehensible. But, in spite of a vigorous
campaign, in which Lady Randolph took an active part, Oldham decided
it was not ready to accept young Churchill for a member. Later he was
Oldham's only claim to fame.

A week after he was defeated he sailed for South Africa, where war with
the Boers was imminent. He had resigned from his regiment and went south
as war correspondent for the _Morning Post_.

Later in the war he held a commission as Lieutenant in the South African
Light Horse, a regiment of irregular cavalry, and on the staffs
of different generals acted as galloper and aide-de-camp. To this
combination of duties, which was in direct violation of a rule of the
War Office, his brother officers and his fellow correspondents objected;
but, as in each of his other campaigns he had played this dual role, the
press censors considered it a traditional privilege, and winked at it.
As a matter of record, Churchill's soldiering never seemed to interfere
with his writing, nor, in a fight, did his duty to his paper ever
prevent him from mixing in as a belligerent.

War was declared October 9th, and only a month later, while scouting in
the armored train along the railroad line between Pietermaritzburg and
Colenso, the cars were derailed and Churchill was taken prisoner.

The train was made up of three flat cars, two armored cars, and