"'I'm _so_ glad you agree with me,' he says. 'My command here I regard as
a training depot, and you, if I may say so, have been one of my most
efficient instructors. I mature my men slowly but thoroughly. First I put
'em in a town which is liable to be attacked by night, where they can
attend riding-school in the day. Then I use 'em with a convoy, and last I
put 'em into a column. It takes time,' he says, 'but I flatter myself that
any men who have worked under me are at least grounded in the rudiments of
their profession. Adrian,' he says, 'was there anything wrong with the men
who upset Van Bester's applecart last month when he was trying to cross
the line to join Piper with those horses he'd stole from Gabbitas?'

"'No, Generaal,' says Van Zyl. 'Your men got the horses back and eleven
dead; and Van Besters, he ran to Delarey in his shirt. They was very good,
those men. They shoot hard.'

"_'So_ pleased to hear you say so. I laid 'em down at the beginning of
this century--a 1900 vintage. _You_ remember 'em, Mankeltow?' he says.
'The Central Middlesex Buncho Busters--clerks and floorwalkers mostly,'
and he wiped his moustache. 'It was just the same with the Liverpool
Buckjumpers, but they were stevedores. Let's see--they were a last-century
draft, weren't they? They did well after nine months. _You_ know 'em, Van
Zyl? You didn't get much change out of 'em at Pootfontein?'

"'No,' says Van Zyl. 'At Pootfontein I lost my son Andries.'

"'I beg your pardon, Commandant,' says the General; and the rest of the
crowd sort of cooed over Adrian.

"'Excoose,' says Adrian. 'It was all right. They were good men those, but
it is just what I say. Some are so dam good we want to hands-up, and some