intelligence crept into the very dullest face. They
passed on the word in approving tones from one to another, and I was
instantly supplied with quite a new illustration of the ancient
legend, "In hoc signo vinces." In token of respect for my chaplain's
badge, without passport or payment, I was at once courteously allowed
to cross the line and set foot in Portuguese Africa. There are
compensations in every lot, even in a parson's!

The village immediately beyond the frontier is little else than a
block or two of solidly built barracks, and a well appointed railway
station, with its inevitable refreshment room, in which a group of
officers representing the two nationalities were enjoying a friendly
lunch. But great was my surprise on discovering that the vivacious
Portuguese proprietor presiding behind the bar was a veritable
Scotchman hailing from queenly Edinburgh; and still greater was my
surprise on hearing a sweetly familiar accent on the lips of a
Colonial scout hungrily waiting on the platform outside till the
aforesaid officers' lunch was over, and he, a private, might be
permitted to purchase an equally satisfying lunch and eat it in that
same refreshment room. It was the accent of the far away "West
Countree," and told me its owner was like myself a Cornishman. Yet
what need to be surprised? Were I to take the wings of the morning and
fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, I should probably find there
as at Resina Garcia, thriving Scotchman in possession, and a famished
Cornishman waiting at his gate. To these two, in this fashion, have
been apportioned the outposts of the habitable globe!

[Sidenote: _Westward Ho!_]

It was to everybody's extreme surprise and delight that at noon on
Thursday we received sudden orders to leave Koomati Poort at once, and
to leave it not on foot but by rail. The huge baboon, therefore, which
had become our latest regimental pet and terror, was promptly
transferred to other custody, and our scanty kits were packed with
utmost speed. We soon discovered, however, that it was one thing to
reach the appointed railway station, and quite another to find the
appointed train. Two locomotives, in apparently sound condition, had
been selected from among a multitude of utterly wrecked and ruined
ones, but serviceable trucks had also to be warily chosen from among
the leavings of a vast devouring fire; then the loading of these
trucks with the various belongings of the battalion began, a