class carriage for the officers. Into a compartment of
this we were speedily bundled. Two Boers with rifles sat themselves
between us, and the doors were locked. I was desperately hungry, and
asked for both food and water. 'Plenty is coming,' they said, so we
waited patiently, and sure enough, in a few minutes a railway official
came along the platform, opened the door, and thrust before us in
generous profusion two tins of preserved mutton, two tins of preserved
fish, four or five loaves, half a dozen pots of jam, and a large can of
tea. As far as I could see the soldiers fared no worse. The reader will
believe that we did not stand on ceremony, but fell to at once and made
the first satisfying meal for three days. While we ate a great crowd of
Boers gathered around the train and peered curiously in at the windows.
One of them was a doctor, who, noticing that my hand was bound up,
inquired whether I were wounded. The cut caused by the splinter of
bullet was insignificant, but since it was ragged and had received no
attention for two days it had begun to fester. I therefore showed him my
hand, and he immediately bustled off to get bandages and hot water and
what not, with which, amid the approving grins of the rough fellows who
thronged the platform, he soon bound me up very correctly.

The train whereby we were to travel was required for other business
besides; and I noticed about a hundred Boers embarking with their horses
in a dozen large cattle trucks behind the engine. At or about noon we
steamed off, moving slowly along the line, and Captain Haldane pointed
out to me the ridge of Elandslaagte, and gave me some further account of
that successful action and of the great skill with which Hamilton had
directed the infantry attack. The two Boers who were guarding us
listened with great interest, but the single observation they made was
that we had only to fight Germans and Hollanders at Elandslaagte. 'If
these had been veldt Boers in front of you----' My companion replied
that even then the Gordon Highlanders might have made some progress.
Whereat both Boers laughed softly and shook their heads with the air of
a wiseacre, saying, 'You will know better when you're as old as me,' a
remark I constantly endure from very worthy people.

Two stations beyond Elandslaagte the Boer commando, or portion of
commando, left the train, and the care and thought that had been
lavished on the military arrangements were very evident. Al