e expected to begin in Natal the following week, and I left for
Mafeking, intending to proceed to Cape Town and home. On arrival at
Mafeking everyone told us an attack on the town was imminent, and we
found the inhabitants in a state of serious alarm. However,
Baden-Powell's advent reassured them, and preparations for war proceeded
apace; the townspeople flocked in to be enrolled in the town guard,
spending the days in being drilled; the soldiers were busy throwing up
such fortifications as were possible under the circumstances. On October
3 the armoured train arrived from the South, and took its first trip on
the rails, which had been hastily flung down round the circumference of
the town. This train proved afterwards to be absolutely useless when the
Boers brought up their artillery. Night alarms occurred frequently;
bells would ring, and the inhabitants, who mostly slept in their
clothes, had to rush to their various stations. I must admit that these
nocturnal incidents were somewhat unpleasant. Still war was not
declared, and the large body of Boers, rumoured as awaiting the signal
to advance on Mafeking, gave no sign of approaching any nearer.

We were, indeed, as jolly as the proverbial sandboys during those few
days in Mafeking before the war commenced. If Colonel Baden-Powell had
forebodings, he kept them to himself. Next to him in importance came
Lord Edward Cecil, Grenadier Guards, C.S.O. I have often heard it said
that if Lord Edward had been a member of any other family but that of
the gifted Cecils he would have been marked as a genius, and that if he
had not been a soldier he would surely have been a politician of note.
Then there was Major Hanbury Tracy, Royal Horse Guards, who occupied the
position of Director of Military Intelligence. This officer was always
devising some amusing if wild-cat schemes, which were to annihilate or
checkmate the Boers, and prove eventually the source of fame to himself.
Mr. Ronald Moncrieff,[20] an extra A.D.C., was, as usual, not blest
with a superabundance of this world's goods, but had an unending supply
of animal spirits, and he was looking forward to a siege as a means of
economizing. Another of our circle was Major Hamilton Gould Adams,[21]
Resident Commissioner of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, who commanded
the town guard, representing the civil as opposed to the military
interests. In contrast to the usual practice, these departments worked
perfectly smoothly togeth