He is essentially a man who means business, who believes that the army is here to fight, and it is especially in action that he makes his value felt.  Then, when he leads his squadron and the rifles begin to speak, and the first few shots come one by one like the first drops of a shower, and when he turns round in his saddle and thunders his, “Let them go” down the ranks, then I tell you there is not a trooper at his heels who does not realise that the man at their head is the right man in the right place.

At the same time it would be a mistake to think of him as one of our “let me get at them,” all sword and spurs officers.  There have been several of this sort in the army, and it is impossible to help very often admiring their dash.  But they are most dangerous leaders.  What chiefly distinguishes the Boers is their coolness.  You cannot bluff or flurry them, or shift them by the impetuosity of your attack from a position which they are strong enough to hold.  If indeed you have reason to believe them weak, then the faster you go at them the better:  for if they mean going this will force them to go in a hurry and you will diminish the time you are under fire.  But see your calculations are pretty sound, for if they don’t mean bolting it will not be the fury of your charge that will make them.  Generally when they begin on you at a very long range it is safe to go for them; but if they reserve their fire then look out for squalls.  The Colonel has a very cool judgment in these matters; and though no one, when he does go for them, goes straighter and faster than he, no one, on the other hand, calculates more coolly the probable effect and consequence of the move.

In all scouting operations in our frequent long patrols he shows the same mixture of prudence and daring.  He goes long distances from his supports and penetrates far into the enemy’s country, and yet in none of these expeditions has he ever got trapped or cut off.  Of course with men like the Guides, who have experience of the country and the enemy, and ways of picking up information not open to strangers, this is easier than it would be with men who had no such experience; but at the same time the chief credit and responsibility in these affairs must rest with the commanding officer.  For one thing Rimington has an extraordinary good eye for a country.  Perhaps at first you will scarcely realise the value of this gift.  The features of this country and the way the long, undulating slopes of the veldt merge into each other are extremely perplexing, and as an engagement may be carried on over many miles of ground and your own movements may be extensive and involved, it becomes very difficult, in fact to most people absolutely impossible, to remember the lie of the land and how the various hills and slopes are related to each other.  Thinking about it and trying to observe does no good at all; but some people have an extraordinary instinct by which they hold the configuration