fully turned away from Mafeking by the
road leading up an incline to the laager, still several miles distant.
The cart was suddenly brought to a standstill by almost driving into a
Boer outpost, crouched under a ruined wall, from which point of vantage
they were firing with their rifles at the advance trenches of the town.
The officer in charge of this party told me I must stay here till
sundown, when he and his men would accompany me to headquarters, as he
averred the road I was now pursuing was not safe from the Mafeking
gun-range. I therefore waited their good pleasure for an hour, during
which time the firing from all round the town went on in a desultory
sort of way, occasionally followed by a boom from a large Boer gun, and
the short, sharp, hammering noise from the enemy's one-pounder Maxim.
The sun was almost down when the burgher in charge gave the signal to
bring up their horses, and in a few minutes we were under way. This time
I was attended by a bodyguard of about eighteen or twenty burghers, and
we went along, much to my annoyance, at a funereal pace. On our way we
met the relieving guard coming out to take the place just evacuated by
my escort. When seen riding thus more or less in ranks, a Boer squadron,
composed of picked men for outpost duty, presented really a formidable
appearance. The men were mostly of middle age, all with the inevitable
grizzly beard, and their rifles, gripped familiarly, were resting on the
saddle-bow; nearly all had two bandoliers apiece, which gave them the
appearance of being armed to the teeth--a more determined-looking band
cannot be imagined. The horses of these burghers were well bred and in
good condition, and, although their clothes were threadbare, they seemed
cheerful enough, smoking their pipes and cracking their jokes.

When we at last drew up at headquarters, I was fairly startled to find
what an excitement my appearance created, about two or three hundred
Boers swarming up from all over the laager, and surrounding the cart.
The General was then accommodated in a deserted farmhouse, and from this
building at last issued his secretary, a gentleman who spoke English
perfectly, and to whom I handed my letter requesting an interview. After
an interminable wait among the gaping crowd, the aforementioned
gentleman returned, and informed me I could see the General at once. He
literally had to make a way for me from the cart to the house, but I
must admit the burghers were v