The Soldier, Who
Had Not Seen A Friend From The Outside World In Four Months, Leaped
In Front Of Us And Presented A Heavy Gun And A Burnished Bayonet.
"Halt, there," he cried.
"Where's your pass?" Of course it showed
excellent discipline - we admired it immensely. We even overlooked
the fact that he should think Boer spies would enter the town by way
of the main bridge and at a gallop. We liked his vigilance, we
admired his discipline, but in spite of that his reception chilled
us. We had brought several things with us that we thought they might
possibly want in Ladysmith, but we had entirely forgotten to bring a
pass. Indeed I do not believe one of the twenty-five thousand men
who had been fighting for six weeks to relieve Ladysmith had supplied
himself with one. The night before, when the Ladysmith sentries had
tried to halt Dundonald's troopers in the same way, and demanded a
pass from them, there was not one in the squadron.
We crossed the bridge soberly and entered Ladysmith at a walk. Even
the ponies looked disconcerted and crestfallen. After the high grass
and the mountains of red rock, where there was not even a tent to
remind one of a roof-tree, the stone cottages and shop-windows and
chapels and well-ordered hedges of the main street of Ladysmith made
it seem a wealthy and attractive suburb. When we entered, a Sabbath-
like calm hung upon the town; officers in the smartest khaki and
glistening Stowassers observed us askance, little girls in white
pinafores passed us with eyes cast down, a man on a bicycle looked
up, and then, in terror lest we might speak to him, glued his eyes to
the wheel and "scorched" rapidly.
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