ht of our
goal, but now, directly in front of us, was spread a great city of dirty
tents and grass huts and Red Cross flags--the neutral camp--and beyond
that, four miles away, shimmering and twinkling sleepily in the sun, the
white walls and zinc roofs of Ladysmith.

We gave a gasp of recognition and galloped into and through the neutral
camp. Natives of India in great turbans, Indian women in gay shawls and
nose-rings, and black Kaffirs in discarded khaki looked up at us dully
from the earth floors of their huts, and when we shouted "Which way?" and
"Where is the bridge?" only stared, or pointed vaguely, still staring.

After all, we thought, they are poor creatures, incapable of emotion.
Perhaps they do not know how glad we are that they have been rescued.
They do not understand that we want to shake hands with everybody and
offer our congratulations. Wait until we meet our own people, we said,
they will understand! It was such a pleasant prospect that we whipped
the unhappy ponies into greater bursts of speed, not because they needed
it, but because we were too excited and impatient to sit motionless.

In our haste we lost our way among innumerable little trees; we disagreed
as to which one of the many cross-trails led home to the bridge. We
slipped out of our stirrups to drag the ponies over one steep place, and
to haul them up another, and at last the right road lay before us, and a
hundred yards ahead a short iron bridge and a Gordon Highlander waited to
welcome us, to receive our first greetings and an assorted collection of
cigarettes. Hartland was riding a thoroughbred polo pony and passed the
gallant defender of Ladysmith without a kind look or word, but Blackwood
and I galloped up more decorously, smiling at him with good-will. The
soldier, who had not seen a friend from the outside world in four months,
leaped in front of us and presented a heavy gun and a burnished bayonet.

"Halt, there," he cried. "Where's your pass?" Of course it showed
excellent discipline--we admired it immensely. We even overlooked the
fact that he should think Boer spies would enter the town by way of the
main bridge and at a gallop. We liked his vigilance, we admired his
discipline, but in spite of that his reception chilled us. We had
brought several things with us that we thought they might possibly want
in Ladysmith, but we had entirely forgotten to bring a pass. Indeed I do
not believe one of the twenty-five thous