had happened,
but we found out afterwards. The Boers had once more given us a lesson
in tactics, and we had given them one in dealing with a nasty situation.
With a comparatively small force (although stronger than ours) they had
bluffed us by extending their attack round a large perimeter, leading us
to suppose their strength to be far greater than it really was. They had
caught us in the one bad bit of country between Jan Massibi's and
Mafeking, and but for the really excellent fighting on our side might
have held us where we were until the want of supplies forced us to
retire or surrender. As we had so few casualties it is probable that
they had not many; but it is possible to have very warm fighting with
few casualties. Our cover was excellent; so was theirs; and Colonel
Peakman, who, with the rear-guard, bore the heaviest burden of the
fight, lost hardly a man, although he lost heavily in horses. Everyone
is agreed that the honours of the day fell chiefly to this gallant
business man, who in his spare time had made himself so good a soldier.

All these matters were talked over until we halted about seven o'clock
and reluctantly heard that we were not to proceed that night. No lights,
of course; but everyone was ready to lie down. While my bed was being
prepared I went over to the ambulance, whither the wounded were being
brought in on stretchers. There were only two small waggons, and the
wretched sufferers were literally heaped inside them, lying in the dark
amid their own blood. The little staff under Surgeon-Captain Davies
worked gallantly, getting the men out, dressing their wounds, making
them as comfortable as possible on blankets over the grass; but it was a
miserable and sordid scene, relieved only by the cheery willingness of
the helpers and the fortitude of the patients. Even here, of course,
there were no lights, but in the recesses of a waggon an orderly was
trying to prepare hot water with a tiny Etna. Dressing about twenty
serious surgical cases out of doors in pitch darkness, with a limited
supply of not over clean water, short-handed, hurried, without proper
appliances--it was a sight that would have startled the artist in
antiseptic surgery. But there they lay; and it was with something like a
sense of shame that I turned into my own comfortable bed.

XXIV

MAFEKING AT LAST

They were twenty-four very exciting hours that began when we moved from
Jan Massibi's at daybreak on Wednesday a