itish Intelligence Department had
information that I was prowling round to the north of Lydenburg with
4,000 men and two cannons, and that my men were so splendidly
fortified that our position was unconquerable. Of course, it was not
in my interest to enlighten him upon the point. I was a
prisoner-of-war when this amusing information was given me, and I
simply answered: "Yes, your intelligence officers are very smart
fellows." The officer then inquired, with an assumption of candour and
innocence, whether it was really a fact that we had still cannon in
the field. To this I retorted: "What would you think if I put a
similar question to a British officer who had fallen into my hands?"
At this he bit his thumb and stammered: "I beg your pardon; I did not
mean to--er--insult you." He was quite a young chap this, a conceited
puppy, affecting the "haw-haw," which seems to be epidemic in the
British Army. His hair was parted down the centre, in the manner so
popular among certain British officers, and this style of
hair-dressing came to be described by the Boers as "middel-paadje"
(middle-path). As a matter of fact, my men only numbered as many
hundreds as the thousands attributed to me by the British. As for
cannons, they simply existed in the imagination of the British
Intelligence Department.

Affairs were daily growing more critical. Since the beginning of the
year we had made several attempts at destroying the Delagoa Bay
Railway, but the British had constructed so formidable a network of
barbed wire, and their blockhouses were so close together and strongly
garrisoned, that hitherto our attempts had been abortive. The line
was also protected by a large number of armoured trains.

In consequence of our ill-success in this enterprise, we turned our
attention to other directions. We reconnoitred the British garrisons
in the Lydenburg district with the object of striking at their weakest
point. A number of my officers and men proceeded under cover of
darkness right through the British outposts, and gained the Lydenburg
village by crawling on their hands and knees. On their return journey
they were challenged and fired on several times, and managed only with
difficulty to return to camp unhurt. The object of the reconnaissance
was, however, accomplished. They reported to me that the village was
encompassed with barbed wire, and that a number of blockhouses had
been built round it, and also that various large houses of the