sions was Burnham
sent into the Boer lines with dynamite cartridges to blow up the
railroad over which the enemy was receiving supplies and ammunition. One
of these expeditions nearly ended his life.

On June 2, 1901, while trying by night to blow up the line between
Pretoria and Delagoa Bay, he was surrounded by a party of Boers and
could save himself only by instant flight. He threw himself Indian
fashion along the back of his pony, and had all but got away when a
bullet caught the horse and, without even faltering in its stride, it
crashed to the ground dead, crushing Burnham beneath it and knocking him
senseless. He continued unconscious for twenty-four hours, and when he
came to, both friends and foes had departed. Bent upon carrying out his
orders, although suffering the most acute agony, he crept back to the
railroad and destroyed it. Knowing the explosion would soon bring the
Boers, on his hands and knees he crept to an empty kraal, where for
two days and nights he lay insensible. At the end of that time he
appreciated that he was sinking and that unless he found aid he would
die.

Accordingly, still on his hands and knees, he set forth toward the sound
of distant firing. He was indifferent as to whether it came from the
enemy or his own people, but, as it chanced, he was picked up by a
patrol of General Dickson's Brigade, who carried him to Pretoria. There
the surgeons discovered that in his fall he had torn apart the muscles
of the stomach and burst a blood-vessel. That his life was saved, so
they informed him, was due only to the fact that for three days he had
been without food. Had he attempted to digest the least particle of the
"staff of life" he would have surely died. His injuries were so serious
that he was ordered home.

On leaving the army he was given such hearty thanks and generous rewards
as no other American ever received from the British War Office. He was
promoted to the rank of major, presented with a large sum of money, and
from Lord Roberts received a personal letter of thanks and appreciation.

In part the Field-Marshal wrote: "I doubt if any other man in the force
could have successfully carried out the thrilling enterprises in which
from time to time you have been engaged, demanding as they did the
training of a lifetime, combined with exceptional courage, caution, and
powers of endurance." On his arrival in England he was commanded to dine
with the Queen and spend the night at Osborn