The main Manchesters' defences are circular like forts; so are the Gordons' and the K.R.R.'s.

All are provisioned for fourteen days.
I spent the afternoon searching for a runner, a Kaffir the colour of night, who would steal through the Boer lines in the dark with a telegram.

In my search I lost two hours through the conscientiousness of the 5th Lancers, who arrested me and sent me from pillar to post, just as if I was seeking information at the War Office.

At last they took me--the Colonel himself, three privates with rifles and a mounted orderly with a lance--took me to the General Staff, and there the absurdity ended.

But seriously, what is the good of having the very highest and most authoritative passes possible--one from the War Office and one from the head of the Intelligence Department here--if any conscientious colonel can refuse to acknowledge them, and drag a correspondent about amid the derision of Kaffirs and coolies, and of Dutchmen who are known perfectly well to send every scrap of intelligence to their friends outside?
I lost two hours; probably I lost my chance of getting a runner through.