Three of them were young
lieutenants, the fourth an older man, shrewd but kindly faced. In
introducing him, his friend said: "This is our medico, Dr. Dawlish. I
hope that you will have no occasion to make his professional
acquaintance." When they had all read the letter, the senior lieutenant
said: "Now, Mr. King, we won't ask much of you to-night; we shall have
all to-morrow to listen to your story. We have all had a pretty hard
day's work, and shall before long turn in. Perhaps you will tell us to
begin with what your corps is, and how you became the officer." "There
are twenty-one of us, sir, and we are all about the same age. We were
great friends together at Johannesburg, where our fathers were for the
most part connected with mining. As things went on badly, we decided to
form ourselves into a corps if the war broke out. They chose me as their
leader--for no particular reason that I know of--and with the
understanding that if I did not quite give satisfaction, I should resign
in favour of one of the others. We all came down with our families from
Johannesburg when war was declared, and were grossly insulted and ill-
treated by the Boers, several of the ladies, among them my mother, being
struck on the face with their whips; which, you can imagine, quite
confirmed our determination to fight against them.
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