This, then, was the sudden fate of the man who had returned to England from wandering alone within a stone’s throw of the Matabele bivouac fires unknown and unhonoured by the public.  I wonder if Baden-Powell had a presentiment of what was to be when, in the early days of the siege, he corrected the proofs of Aids to Scouting, and came upon his own words towards the end of that manual:  “Remember always that you are helping your side to win, and not merely getting glory for yourself or your regiment—­that will come of itself.”

The wit of Baden-Powell in some measure obscured from the popular view the grimness of his task.  Like the true Briton that he is, he considered it part of his duty to make light of his difficulties.  But the holding of Mafeking was stern work.  The Boers themselves never dreamed the defence would be seriously maintained, and in the early days of the siege they sent in a messenger under a flag of truce offering terms of surrender.  Baden-Powell gave the messenger a sumptuous lunch, himself the most delightful of hosts, and sent him back with word to the accommodating Boers that he would be sure and let them know immediately he was ready to yield the town.  And to Cronje’s humanitarian plea that Baden-Powell should surrender in order to avoid further bloodshed, the Goal-Keeper made answer, one can see his eyes twinkling, “Certainly, but when will the bloodshed begin?” A little later he got in with a still more irritating piece of irony, addressing a letter to the burghers asking them if they seriously thought that they could take the town by sitting down and looking at it.

But this was at a time when Baden-Powell, in common with the rest of us, believed that the triumphant British Army would soon be coming up to Mafeking, and he himself able to sally out and strike a crushing blow at the besieging force.  Weeks passed and the hope died.  The Boers cut off the water-supply, and, with contrary ideas of logic, thought that such an action would damp the spirits of Baden-Powell.  But that thoughtful and resourceful commander had seen that all the old wells were cleaned, and well filled, so that Mafeking was as secure from a water-famine as it was from the entrance of the Boers.  Besides this, Baden-Powell had constructed bomb-proof shelters everywhere, and a boy stood ready with bell-rope in hand to ring immediate warning of a shell’s approach.  Trenches were dug giving cover and leading from every portion of the town.  So perfect indeed were Baden-Powell’s defences that it was possible to walk entirely round the little town without being exposed to the Boer fire.  Telephones, too, were established between the headquarter bomb-proofs of outlying posts and the headquarter bomb-proof where Baden-Powell and Lord Edward Cecil, D.S.O., laid their heads together and planned the town’s defence.  And to keep the enemy at a respectful distance, Baden-Powell continually sent out little forces to harass them