On the Heels of De Wet | Page 7

a war, an intelligent class--the same class, be it said, from
which the best that your universities can produce is drawn,--you sweat
it as no other educated class would allow itself to be sweated in the
whole civilised world, and yet, though men drop in harness for you by
dozens every month, you turn upon them and revile them. Can you not
appreciate the fact that it is not always the medium, through which the
Great Head you have selected works, that is in error,--that the pilot's
hand may be at fault, and not the steering-gear? Take us that night at
Richmond Road. New troops, new staff, little or no information, and an
order to be in position at a point 50 miles distant in 36 hours. If bricks
have to be made, has not the workman a right to expect to be supplied
with the ingredients? Is the blame altogether his if, when exposed to the
heat of a tropical sun, his hurriedly constructed clay crumbles to pieces
for want of the straw with which his taskmaster failed to supply him?
We think not. But that night at Richmond Road we had no time to

ruminate upon our difficulties. We had to surmount them, and with our
brigadier we took our coats off and buckled to the job.
Telegrams:--
1. To Intelligence, New Cavalry Brigade, Richmond Road, from
Intelligence, De Aar.
"You must organise your intelligence locally, impossible to supply so
many columns with men from here. Will see what can be done later.
Authorise such expenditure as you think fit."
2. To Int. N.C.B. from Int. De Aar.
"De Wet Expert[2] reports De Wet moving towards Vosberg. Plumer
still in touch. Hertzog, Brand, Pretorius, all between Prieska and
Vosberg with large quantities remounts for De Wet. Theron has been
detached by De Wet, moving south rapidly to join Brand, intention
attacking Britstown. Local farmers Hanover and Victoria West districts
collecting to assist invaders. Inform New Cavalry Brigade. This wire is
repeated to Intelligences Victoria West, Carnarvon, Fraserberg,
'Chowder'[3] Cape Town, Orange River, Beaufort, and Chief Pretoria."
3. From Brigade-Major New Cavalry Brigade, Hanover Road, to O.C.
N.C.B. Richmond Road.
"Hope to move out from here to-morrow. No trains available. As
ordered by you, proceed by road to Britstown. Saddles for Mount
Nelson's not yet arrived."
4. From Ass. Director Transport De Aar to O.C. N.C.B. Richmond
Road.
"Impossible to equip you with more mule transport than has been
forwarded to you; will make up your deficiencies with ox transport,
which will be waiting for you at Britstown when you arrive."
5. From O.C. De Aar to O.C. N.C.B. Richmond Road (60871).

"Proceed with extreme caution, as local rebel commando under Van der
Merwe said to be collected at Nieuwjaarsfontein between you and
Britstown. As extra precaution you may take the company of Wessex
Mounted Infantry, stationed at Richmond Road, with you as far as
Britstown."
6. (Six hours later) "Vide my 60871. Wessex M.I. countermanded."
These only represent a portion of the communications which were
waiting for us in the telegraph-office at Richmond Road. But they are a
fair enough sample to illustrate the difficulties with which the brigadier
had to contend. The communication about the rebel gathering at
Nieuwjaarsfontein moved him to moralise. "Alas for my advance
squadron! If I believed that it were true, I would move out at once with
what we have got and nab those rebels. But as it is I will leave it to the
advance squadron, and we will supply the burial-party in the morning!
Look here, Mr Intelligence, you have got to form an Intelligence
Department to-night. You had better set about it at once."
* * * * *
The Intelligence officer walked out into the clearing in front of the
station and surveyed the scene. It was now too dark to see his face; but
there was that something in his attitude that betrayed the feeling of utter
hopelessness which possessed him. It is in just such an attitude that the
schoolmaster detects Smith Major's failure to prepare his Horace
translation before that youth has hazarded a single word. The
Intelligence officer had been ordered to raise an Intelligence
Department for the brigade. Trained in the stern school of army
discipline, he had no choice but to obey. And with this end in view he
left the precincts of the station. Then the absolute impossibility of the
situation dawned upon him. Not a soul was in sight, and even if there
had been, though the powers of the press-gang officer were vested in
him, he did not know a word of the Dutch or Kaffir tongues. He stood
upon the fringe of the gaunt Karoo. On either hand stretched a waste of
lone prairie--a solitude of gathering night. Out of