tions at him. And it was
interesting to see a fellow-countryman one had heard praised so highly
so completely make good. It was not as though he had a credulous
audience of commercial tourists. Among the officers who each evening
gathered around him were Colonel Gallilet of the Egyptian cavalry,
Captain Frazer commanding the Scotch Gillies, Captain Mackie of Lord
Roberts's staff, each of whom was later killed in action; Colonel Sir
Charles Hunter of the Royal Rifles, Major Bagot, Major Lord Dudley, and
Captain Lord Valentia. Each of these had either held command in border
fights in India or the Sudan or had hunted big game, and the questions
each asked were the outcome of his own experience and observation.

Not for a single evening could a faker have submitted to the midnight
examination through which they put Burnham and not have exposed his
ignorance. They wanted to know what difference there is in a column of
dust raised by cavalry and by trek wagons, how to tell whether a horse
that has passed was going at a trot or a gallop, the way to throw a
diamond hitch, how to make a fire without at the same time making a
target of yourself, how--why--what--and how?

And what made us most admire Burnham was that when he did not know he at
once said so.

Within two nights he had us so absolutely at his mercy that we would
have followed him anywhere; anything he chose to tell us, we would have
accepted. We were ready to believe in flying foxes, flying squirrels,
that wild turkeys dance quadrilles--even that you must never sleep in
the moonlight. Had he demanded: "Do you believe in vampires?" we would
have shouted "Yes." To ask that a scout should on an ocean steamer prove
his ability was certainly placing him under a severe handicap.

As one of the British officers said: "It's about as fair a game as
though we planted the captain of this ship in the Sahara Desert, and
told him to prove he could run a ten-thousand-ton liner."

Burnham continued with Lord Roberts to the fall of Pretoria, when he was
invalided home.

During the advance north he was a hundred times inside the Boer laagers,
keeping Headquarters Staff daily informed of the enemy's movements; was
twice captured and twice escaped.

He was first captured while trying to warn the British from the fatal
drift at Thaba'nchu. When reconnoitring alone in the morning mist he
came upon the Boers hiding on the banks of the river, toward which the
English were even then