, and threaten us with the police!

But we must be up and doing. It is an extraordinary day at De Aar.
Every one is bustling about. Staff popinjays hurry up and down the
platform. Stout elderly militia colonels, who would never be up and
dressed at this hour in ordinary circumstances, are heckling the
R.S.O., who has more starch in his tunic than has ever been seen in a
tunic before. What does it all mean? Then we remember the naked
bayonet of the previous night. Lord Kitchener is at De Aar. Oh, Hades!

We feel his presence, but it is not long before we see him. How he
must worry his tailor. Tall and well-proportioned above, he falls away
from his waist downwards. It is this lower weediness which evidently
troubles the man who fashions his clothes. But it is his face we look
at. That cold blue eye which is the basilisk of the British Army. The
firm jaw and the cruel mouth, of which we read in 1898. But presumably
this is only the stereotyped "military hero" that the papers always
keep "set up" for the advent of successful generals. None of it was
visible here. A round, red, and somewhat puffy face. Square head with
staff cap set carelessly upon it. Heavy moustaches covering a somewhat
mobile mouth, at the moment inclined to smile. Eyes just anyhow;
heavy, but not overpowering eyebrows. In fact, a very ordinary face of
a man scarcely past his prime. Hardly a figure that you would have
remarked if it had not been for the gilt upon his hat--in fact it was
all a disappointing discovery. He was pacing up and down with his
hands on his hips, and elbows pointing backwards, talking
good-naturedly to a colonel man, who was evidently just off "trek,"
and with his overgrown gait and ponderous step the great Kitchener
did not look half as imposing as his travel-stained companion.

The chief was explaining something to the colonel. They paced up and
down together for a few minutes, then stopped just in front of us, and
the conversation was as follows:--

_Chief._ "All right; I will soon find you a staff. Let me see; you
have a brigade-major?"

_Colonel._ "Yes; but he is at Hanover Road!"

_Chief._ "That's all right; you will collect him in good time. You
want a chief for your staff. Here, you (_and he beckoned a colonel in
palpably just-out-from-England kit, who was standing by_); what are
you doing here? You will be chief of the staff to the New Cavalry
Brigade!"

_New Colonel._ "But, sir--"

_Chief._ "That's all right. (