to protect the main road to Adelaide.
Major Jervois had arranged for an alarm to take place early the next
morning with a view of testing how far the commanding officers of the
several zones of the defence had grasped their respective duties. The
Governor had paid a visit to the infantry camp at Glenelg that afternoon,
and had remained to take a light evening meal at the officers' mess. It
was a stirring time. Jervois and myself were the only two staff officers
available. We had the assistance of three or four of the instructional
officers. Within three days the whole of the members of our forces were
assembled at the war stations as provided for in our Defence Scheme,
covering the probable enemy landing places from Glenelg along the coast
to the mouth of the Port River and the approaches to the city.

After satisfying myself that the officers entrusted with the defence of
the Glenelg zone understood their instructions for the alarm, I started
off riding down the coast towards Fort Glanville, intending to visit the
commanding officers in charge of the other sections, with the same object
in view. Our horses, my own and those of my orderly officer, had been put
up at the Old Pier Hotel at Glenelg. It was dark when we mounted, and,
knowing the townships well, I cut across several vacant allotments
instead of following the road. Suddenly I felt--as I was cantering across
one of these allotments--as if the devil himself had gripped my face. I
remembered no more till about a couple of hours afterwards my senses came
back to me. My face was quite a picture. Some person had put up a
clothes-line during the afternoon across the vacant allotment. The
clothes-line happened to be a piece of fencing wire. I had cantered right
into it and it caught me just above the upper lip and below my nose. That
I have, since that day, been blessed with a nose of my own is quite a
miracle. I can assure you that when I got hold of the tip of it I could
lift it quite easily from my face.

Some kind doctor attended to it at the Pier Hotel, and, with the aid of
many stitches and good old sticking-plaster, dressed the wound
temporarily. The rest of my face was swollen and I was sore all over from
bumping the hard ground, as I fell, when I was dragged backwards off my
horse by the wire. However, I was much too anxious to get on with my work
to cry "Halt." I couldn't ride, but I ordered a buggy from the hotel and
moved on. As I reached the commanding o