Early in November we had a great surprise.  Mr. Keeley himself turned up from Mafeking, having been given leave from the town guard to look after his wife and farm.  He had to ride for his life to escape the Boers, who were drawing much closer to the town, and the news he brought was not altogether reassuring.  True, he stated that the garrison were in splendid spirits, and that they no longer troubled themselves about the daily bombardments, as dug-out shelters had been constructed.  The young men, he said, vied with each other in begging for permission to join scouting-parties at night, to pepper the Boers, often, as a result, having a brush with the enemy and several casualties.  All the same, they would return at a gallop, laughing and joking.  There had been, however, several very severe fights, notably one on Canon Kopje, where two very able officers and many men had been killed.  In such a small garrison this loss was a serious one, and the death-roll was growing apace, for, besides the frequent attacks, the rifle fire in the streets was becoming very unpleasant.  Intelligence was also to hand of the Boers bringing up one of the Pretoria siege guns, capable of firing a 94-pound shell.  This was to be dragged across the Transvaal at a snail’s pace by a team of twenty oxen, so secure were they against any interruption from the South.  Against these depressing items, he gave intelligence of an incident that had greatly alarmed the Boers.  It seemed that, to get rid of two trucks of dynamite standing in the railway-station, which were considered a danger, the same had been sent off to a siding some eight miles north.  The engine-driver unhitched them and made good his escape.  The Boers, thinking the trucks full of soldiers, immediately commenced bombarding them, till they exploded with terrific force.  This chance affair gave the Boers the idea that Mafeking was full of dynamite, and later, when I was in the laager, they told me one of the reasons why they had never pressed an attack home was that they knew the whole town was mined.  Mr. Keeley also told us of a tragedy that had greatly disturbed the little circle of defenders.  The very evening that the victims of the Canon Kopje fight were laid to rest, Lieutenant Murchison,[29] of the Protectorate Regiment, had, in consequence of a dispute, shot dead with his revolver at Dixon’s Hotel the war-correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle, a Mr. Parslow.  I afterwards learnt that the court-martial which sat on the former had fourteen sessions in consequence of its only being able to deliberate for half an hour at a time in the evening, when the firing was practically over.  The prisoner was ably defended by a Dutch lawyer named De Koch, and, owing to his having done good service during the siege, was strongly recommended to mercy, although sentenced to be shot.  The most satisfactory points we gleaned were the splendid behaviour of the townspeople, and the fine stand made by the natives when the Boers attacked their stadt,