riddled Blackburn with bullets; but his men stayed by
him and drove off the enemy. Blackburn dictated an official report of
the action, and then died.

In the same region a small force under Captain Hare was cut off by a
body of Boers. Of the twenty men most got away, but the chaplain J.W.
Leary, Lieutenant Haserick (who behaved with admirable gallantry), and
six men were taken. [Footnote: Mr. Leary was wounded in the foot by a
shell. The German artillerist entered the hut in which he lay. 'Here's
a bit of your work!' said Leary good-humouredly. 'I wish it had been
worse,' said the amiable German gunner.] The commando which attacked
this party, and on the same day Colonel Spreckley's force, was a
powerful one, with several guns. No doubt it was organised because there
were fears among the Boers that they would be invaded from the north.
When it was understood that the British intended no large aggressive
movement in that quarter, these burghers joined other commandos. Sarel
Eloff, who was one of the leaders of this northern force, was afterwards
taken at Mafeking.

Colonel Plumer had taken command of the small army which was now
operating from the north along the railway line with Mafeking for its
objective. Plumer is an officer of considerable experience in African
warfare, a small, quiet, resolute man, with a knack of gently enforcing
discipline upon the very rough material with which he had to deal. With
his weak force--which never exceeded a thousand men, and was usually
from six to seven hundred--he had to keep the long line behind him open,
build up the ruined railway in front of him, and gradually creep
onwards in face of a formidable and enterprising enemy. For a long
time Gaberones, which is eighty miles north of Mafeking, remained his
headquarters, and thence he kept up precarious communications with the
besieged garrison. In the middle of March he advanced as far south as
Lobatsi, which is less than fifty miles from Mafeking; but the enemy
proved to be too strong, and Plumer had to drop back again with some
loss to his original position at Gaberones. Sticking doggedly to his
task, Plumer again came south, and this time made his way as far
as Ramathlabama, within a day's march of Mafeking. He had with him,
however, only three hundred and fifty men, and had he pushed through the
effect might have been an addition of hungry men to the garrison. The
relieving force was fiercely attacked, however, by the Boers an