knowing that they will convey the news to headquarters that the kopjes are
empty of armed men. Then, with almost incredible swiftness, the light-armed
Boers swarm back by passes known only to themselves, and secretly and
silently take up positions where they can butcher an advancing army. If
General Rundle had been a rash, impetuous, or a headstrong man, he could
comfortably have lost his whole force on half a dozen occasions; but he is
not. He is essentially a cautious leader, and pits his brain against that
of the Boer leaders as a good chess player pits his against an opponent. He
may believe in the luck of the British Army, but he trusts mighty little to
it. Better lose a couple of days than a couple of regiments is his motto,
and a wise motto it is. Had he flung his men haphazard at any of the
positions where the Boers have made a stand, he would have been cut to
pieces.

Rundle plays a wise game. When the enemy looks like sitting tight, Rundle
at once commences a series of manoeuvres directed from his centre. This
keeps the enemy busy, and gives them a lot of solid thinking to do, and
whilst they are thinking he moves his flanks forward, overlapping them in
the hope of surrounding them. The Boer hates to have his rear threatened,
and invariably falls away. His method of falling back is unique. As soon as
he smells danger, all the live stock is sent off and all the waggons. Cape
carts are kept handy for baggage that cannot be sent with the heavy convoy.
Most of the big guns go with the first flight; one or two, which can easily
be shifted, are kept to hold back our advance, and the deadly little
pom-poms are dodged about from kopje to kopje. The pom-pom is not much to
look at, but it is a weapon to be reckoned with in mountain warfare. It
throws only a one-pound shell, and throws it from the most impossible
places imaginable. The beauty of the pom-pom is that it drops its work in
from spots from which no sane man ever expects a shell to come.

When the Boer finds that his position is untenable on account of a flanking
move, the horses are hitched up to the light Cape carts, the loading is
packed, and off they fly at a gallop, and the guns follow suit; whilst the
rifles hold the heights. That is why we so seldom get hold of anything
worth having when we do take a position. Our losses have been paltry,
because the Boer is a defensive, not an offensive, fighter. He waits to be
attacked, he does not often attack; and