hold of some dried fruit-chips, and as a desperate experiment tried to
make a fruit pudding, wrapping the fruit in a jacket of dough and
baking it in fat in our pot. The result, seen in the dark, was a
formless black mass, very doughy and fatty; but with oases of
palatable matter.

CHAPTER IX.

TO PRETORIA.

_August 2._--Reveille at six. Harnessed up, and started out to join
the brigade and its long column of prisoners, mounted on their ponies,
and each leading another with a pack on it. We only went about seven
miles (back towards the Nek), and camped at midday. I had been
suffering from toothache for some days, and was goaded into asking the
doctor to remove the offender. He borrowed a forceps from the R.A.M.C.
and had it out in a minute. The most simple and satisfactory visit to
the dentist I have ever had. No gloomy fingering of the illustrated
papers, while you wait your turn with the other doomed wretches, no
horrible accessories of padded chair and ominous professional plant;
just the open sunny veldt, and a waggon pole to sit on! In the evening
I got some 38th fellows to cook us some chupatties of our flour. They
treated me to fried liver over their fire, and we had a jolly talk. It
is said that we are to take the prisoners to Winberg, and then go to
the Transvaal. Cold night; hard frost.

_August 3._--Reveille at six. Sunrise this day was peculiarly
beautiful; a milky-blue haze lay in festoons along the hills, and
through this the sun shot a delicate flush on the rocks and grassy
slopes, till the farther side of the valley looked unreal as a dream.

Started at nine; marched as far as the inward end of the Nek, and
camped. I got a splendid wash, almost a bath, in a large pond, in the
company of many Boer prisoners, who, I am bound to say, seemed as
anxious for cleanliness as we were. I talked to two most charming
young men, who discussed the war with me with perfect freedom and
urbanity. They dated their _debacle_ from Roberts's arrival, and the
use of flanking movements with large numbers of mounted men. They made
very light of lyddite, and laughed at the legend that the fumes are
dangerous. In action they leave all their horses in the rear,
unwatched, or with a man or two. (Our mounted infantry leave a man to
every four horses.) I asked if a small boy, who was sitting near,
fought. They said, "Yes: a very small stone suffices to shelter him."
They talked very good English.

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