d strode across the platform.
"General," he said, with the frank familiarity of the Colonial, "I
should just like to say that I had shaken hands with you. I wish that
there were more like you; we should all be better men. Good-bye and
good luck to you, sir!"

* * * * *

It is not intended in these papers to compile a historical record of
the operations in South Africa to which they relate. But in order that
the part which the New Cavalry Brigade played in the campaign which
arrested De Wet's invasion in February 1901 may be intelligible, and
in order that the readers may better understand the peregrinations of
our own particular unit, it may be expedient here to give a brief
outline of the initial scheme which, sound as it may have appeared,
within twenty-four hours of its birth became enshrouded in the usual
fog of war. After outlining the scheme all we can hope is that these
papers may furnish occasional and momentary gleams of light in that
fog, since their object is not to build up contemporary history, but
to furnish a faithful record of the life and working of one of the
pieces on the chess-board of the campaign--a piece which, in this De
Wet hunt, had perhaps the relative importance of a "castle."

[Illustration: ROUGH SKETCH MAP SHOWING DE WET'S INVASION
(_from the Note-book of a Staff Officer_)]

De Wet's long-promised invasion--of which Kritzinger's and Hertzog's
descent into Cape Colony had been the weather-signal--was now an
accomplished fact. He had invaded with 2500 to 3000 men and some
artillery. Plumer had located him at Philipstown, had effectually
"bolted" him, and, in spite of heavy weather, had pressed him with the
perseverance of a sleuth-hound in the direction of the De Aar-Orange
River Railway into the arms of two columns in the vicinity of
Hautkraal. A week previous to this, as soon as it was known that De
Wet had evaded the force intended to head him back when moving south
down the Orange River Colony, the railway had been taxed to its utmost
to concentrate troops on the Naauwpoort-De Aar-Beaufort West line. Day
and night troop-trains, bulging with khaki and bristling with rifles,
had vomited columns, detachments, and units at various points upon
this line--Colesberg, Hanover Road, De Aar, Richmond Road, Victoria
West, and Beaufort. Lord Kitchener himself, at a pace which had
wellnigh bleached the driver's hair, had hied down to De Aar in his
armoured tr