"
Chris smiled. "Volunteers have done good service at the Cape before now,
sir, and have shown over and over again that a man can fight just as
well in plain clothes as if he were buttoned up to the chin in uniform;
and as the Boers are themselves nothing but volunteers, I should think
that before this war is over the War Office will see its mistake."
"I should think so indeed, Chris, but at present they have certainly not
woke up to the fact. I see by the telegrams that the London Scottish and
the London Irish have both volunteered almost to a man for service here,
and that they have not even had a civil reply to their application. I
tell you, lad, this war is going to be a big thing, and before it is
over we may have both militia and volunteers out here, and perhaps
troops from the colonies. I heard that some of the Australian colonies
have already offered to send bodies of mounted men, and that our
government are ordering out a larger number of men than was at first
intended. I hear this morning that at Kimberley and Mafeking fighting
has begun. On the 24th Kimberley made a successful sortie, and on the
25th a general attack on Mafeking was repulsed. The fact that both these
places are beleaguered, and that we have again been obliged to fall back
here, and are likely to be cut off altogether, has evidently stirred
them up, and they begin to understand that it is going to be a much
bigger affair than they expected.
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