all the Matabeleland fighting, and some of whom had even participated in the Raid.  Others who used to drop in for a game of bridge were Lord Timmy Paulet,[17] Mr. Geoffrey Glyn, and Dr. Jameson.  To while away the time, I took a course of ambulance lessons, learning how to bandage by experiments on the lanky arms and legs of a little black boy.  We also made expeditions to the various mining districts.  I was always struck with the hospitality shown us in these out-of-the-way localities, and with the cosiness of the houses belonging to the married mine-managers.  Only Kaffirs were available as servants, but, in spite of this, an excellent repast was always produced, and the dwellings were full of their home treasures.  Prints of the present King and Queen abounded, and among the portraits of beautiful Englishwomen, either photographs or merely reproductions cut out of an illustrated newspaper, I found those of Lady de Grey,[18] Georgiana, Lady Dudley, and Mrs. Langtry,[19] most frequently adorning the walls of those lonely homes.

At last, at the end of September, a wire informed us that hostilities were expected to begin in Natal the following week, and I left for Mafeking, intending to proceed to Cape Town and home.  On arrival at Mafeking everyone told us an attack on the town was imminent, and we found the inhabitants in a state of serious alarm.  However, Baden-Powell’s advent reassured them, and preparations for war proceeded apace; the townspeople flocked in to be enrolled in the town guard, spending the days in being drilled; the soldiers were busy throwing up such fortifications as were possible under the circumstances.  On October 3 the armoured train arrived from the South, and took its first trip on the rails, which had been hastily flung down round the circumference of the town.  This train proved afterwards to be absolutely useless when the Boers brought up their artillery.  Night alarms occurred frequently; bells would ring, and the inhabitants, who mostly slept in their clothes, had to rush to their various stations.  I must admit that these nocturnal incidents were somewhat unpleasant.  Still war was not declared, and the large body of Boers, rumoured as awaiting the signal to advance on Mafeking, gave no sign of approaching any nearer.

We were, indeed, as jolly as the proverbial sandboys during those few days in Mafeking before the war commenced.  If Colonel Baden-Powell had forebodings, he kept them to himself.  Next to him in importance came Lord Edward Cecil, Grenadier Guards, C.S.O.  I have often heard it said that if Lord Edward had been a member of any other family but that of the gifted Cecils he would have been marked as a genius, and that if he had not been a soldier he would surely have been a politician of note.  Then there was Major Hanbury Tracy, Royal Horse Guards, who occupied the position of Director of Military Intelligence.  This officer was always devising some amusing if wild-cat schemes, which were to annihilate or checkmate the