of the man in Pretoria with his hand on the tiller. Is not
centralisation the cause of it all? Does not the centralisation of the
guiding authority mean that all success is judged by personal
results,--that the "brave" is selected for preferment who can claim to
have the most scalps dangling from his waist-belt. This is the nature
of the war for which the British nation is content to pay many
millions a-month!

* * * * *

"Please, sir, can I speak to you a moment?" The Tiger stood in the
doorway of the hotel dining-room.

"Anything serious?" asked the Intelligence officer.

"I have made a discovery."

"Can you spare me, sir?" (_to the Brigadier._)

"For half an hour. I am going down to the commandant's office to see
the general. Meet me there in half an hour."

"What is it, Tiger?"

"I will now show you something which will open your eyes. Something
which will show you how this game is worked. It is only about two
minutes' walk from here."

As the Intelligence officer and the Tiger made their way down the main
street, it would have required no great strain upon the imagination to
have fancied that the town had recently been carried by assault, and
the victorious troops allowed the licence consequent upon street
fighting. Even in the few short hours of occupation debauchery had had
its way. Drunkenness is the worst attribute of irregular soldiering
upon five shillings a-day. If the Colonial has money he will drink.
Where the average white man greets a friend and acquaintance with a
hand-shake, the South African Colonial calls him to the nearest bar,
and they drink their salutation. When half-a-dozen Colonial Corps "off
the trek" meet in a wayside township, they turn it into an Inferno.
Here they were crowding in and out of the houses in drunken hilarity.
The townsfolk, delighted at their opportune arrival when Brand was at
their gates, ply them with the spurious spirit which passes for whisky
in South Africa. If the spirit is there, no amount of military
precaution will prevent the Colonial trooper from securing it. You
cannot place whole regiments--officers and men alike--under arrest.
And when a Colonial regiment is "going large," in the majority of
cases it would baffle any but an expert to distinguish officer from
man. And while young men in smasher hats fall over each other in the
streets, the sober British troops look solidly on and wonder. Some, it
is true, fall away with