eeper and the sandwich-man sported by the waves that beat by
the Southern Pole, or sang aloud for joy in the beauty of their home and
the pride of their race. And then with a lurch--for the motion was still
considerable--I came back from the land of dreams to reality and the
hideous fact that Natal is invaded and assailed by the Boer.

The little steamer reached Durban safely at midnight on November 4, and
we passed an impatient six hours in a sleeping town waiting for daylight
and news. Both came in their turn. The sun rose, and we learned that
Ladysmith was cut off. Still, 'As far as you can as quickly as you can'
must be the motto of the war correspondent, and seven o'clock found us
speeding inland in the extra coach of a special train carrying the
mails. The hours I passed in Durban were not without occupation. The
hospital ship 'Sumatra' lay close to our moorings, and as soon as it was
light I visited her to look for friends, and found, alas! several in a
sorry plight. All seemed to be as well as the tenderest care and the
most lavish expenditure of money could make them. All told much the same
tale--the pluck and spirit of the troops, the stubborn unpretentious
valour of the Boer, the searching musketry. Everyone predicted a
prolonged struggle.

'All these colonials tell you,' said an officer severely wounded at
Elandslaagte, 'that the Boers only want one good thrashing to satisfy
them. Don't you believe it. They mean going through with this to the
end. What about our Government?'

And the answer that all were united at home, and that Boer constancy
would be met with equal perseverance and greater resources, lighted the
pain-drawn features with a hopeful smile.

'Well, I never felt quite safe with those politicians. I can't get about
for two months' (he was shot through the thigh), 'but I hope to be in at
the death. It's our blood against theirs.'

Pietermaritzburg is sixty miles from Durban, but as the railway zigzags
up and down hill and contorts itself into curves that would horrify the
domestic engineer, the journey occupies four hours. The town looks more
like Ootacamund than any place I have seen. To those who do not know the
delightful hill station of Southern India let me explain that
Pietermaritzburg stands in a basin of smooth rolling downs, broken
frequently by forests of fir and blue gum trees. It is a sleepy,
dead-alive place. Even the fact that Colonel Knowle, the military
engineer, was busily p