heart into the burghers, and dishearten our forces. But should the tide of
war continue to roll onward in his favour he may attempt to put in force
the oft-told Boer threat, and try to sweep the British into the sea. Should
that day dawn, it is rumoured that the enemy will be found well supplied
with side-arms and with mercenaries trained to their use in one of the best
schools that modern times have known. Where do these rumours come from?
Well, a Boer prisoner, taunted perhaps by a guard, loses his temper and
drops a hint, or a Boer farmer, exultant over the latest news of his
countrymen's success, lifts the veil a little, and a jealously-guarded
secret drops out; or, again, a Boer's wife or daughter, flinging a taunt at
a cursed "Rooinek," allows her temper to run away with her discretion.
There are a hundred ways in which such things get about; only straws,
perhaps, but a straw can point the way windward. A talkative Kaffir who has
been reared on a Dutch farm will at times give things away that would cost
him his life if the length of his tongue was known to his master;
especially will the nigger talk if his mouth be judiciously moistened with
Cape smoke brandy.

Information that comes to a war correspondent's hand is of many colours,
shapes, and sizes, but if he is born to the business he pieces the whole
together and picks out what seemeth good to his own soul at the finish.
Sometimes, at the end of a week's hard work, he finds himself possessed of
a patchwork of information like unto Joseph's coat of many colours, but it
is hard fortune indeed if he cannot find something in the lot to repay him
for his earnest endeavours.