tight corner, French found time to send a cheering Christmas greeting
to friends at home. "We shall drink your health on Christmas Day," he
wired on behalf of himself and his staff, "and we hope you are well,
and having as good a time as we are."

French's use of Arundel was masterly. For him to attack was
impossible; about this time he was outnumbered by something like five
to one. His one aim, therefore, was to keep the Boers from the
railway line. The moment that his scouts discovered the Boers throwing
out detachments to defend a kopje, French would have an elaborate
attack, or a reconnaissance in force to drive the enemy in. At this
time scarcely a day passed without its "affair" of one sort or
another. If it was not a night attack, then it was a miniature siege,
or a flanking movement--or a piece of bluff! His men were in the
saddle night and day. One of those present has related how he
practically lived on his horse for two months.

Did Schoeman attempt to force a pitched battle, then French, by a
series of simultaneous flank and rear movements, would harass him out
of the possibility of a general action. It is doubtful, indeed,
whether during this lively period of his life the Boer commander ever
really had time to meet either his fellow commanders or his
lieutenants and discuss a concerted plan of action. No sooner was a
general movement visible in the Boer camps, than French and his men
swept out, or threatened to sweep out, on some dangerous design. Every
morning the General himself made a personal reconnaissance in the
neighbourhood.

[Page Heading: A BRILLIANT EXPLOIT]