"That load of bamboo!" said the first speaker, as he handed his chum his pouch. "Do you think I carried back the _buthuong's_ (native headman) feather mattress? _Schafskopf!_ An ironwood pagoda beam, my boy. Eighty kilos, if it weighed a gramme! I heard the _Capitän_ (captain) say, 'This would make splendid doorposts, but it's too heavy,' so I tried it. _Sacré nom!_ It was a blow. When we got here I was nearly dead. _Kaput!_ Sweat? Why, when I went to the kitchen to get a drink of tea, Schmidt stared at me, and asked if it had been raining. _Dummer Kerl!_ The cartridges in my pouch were quite wet. I believe the powder in them must be damp, too." I joined in the laugh at this sally, and asked: "Do you know which way we shall go this morning, Bauer?" "No, I don't," he replied; "and neither does any one else. The 'old man' (_le vieux_) arranges such matters with himself as he takes his coffee in the morning. All I do know is that if we go south, east or west we shall each bring back a load of bamboo. _Mein Gott!_ It does take a lot to build this place. If we go north we shall have some fun, and some one will probably get hurt." "No such luck," said the corporal on my right; "there will be no vacancies in the _cadre_ to-day." As he spoke our Captain came walking down from the _réduit_, and a few paces behind him one of the buglers leading his mount, a small white native pony, not much bigger than a Shetland, but as beautifully formed as an Arab. Our commander carried no arms; a pair of field glasses slung over his shoulder, and a small malacca cane, constituted all his impedimenta. He glanced at the detachment, and then said to our lieutenant: "Monsieur Meyer, the reconnaissance will proceed in the direction of Yen-Lé." (I heard a suppressed groan from the men near me.) "The Tirailleurs will supply the vanguard." At the word of command one of the native infantrymen left the ranks and went out of the gate at a jog-trot. Once outside, he brought down his rifle from the shoulder, slipped in a cartridge, closed the breech-bolt, and carried his arm at the slope. This man was what is known as the "point" of the column. When he had proceeded about 40 yards, the "cover-point," composed of a corporal and four men, followed, and behind these, at an equal distance, came the vanguard; which in this case consisted of half a section under the orders of a sergeant. When another interval of 40 yards had been established, the remainder of the column proceeded, with the exception of a small rear-guard of ten men and a corporal, who followed about 100 yards behind us. As we went through the gate, Bauer said to me: "We can be thankful the _demoiselles_--he meant the native troops--are in front to-day; we shan't have to stretch our skittles (legs)." Once outside the fort we slung our rifles and marched at ease. Our road was on a narrow embankment which wound snake-like over the rice fields, and we could only proceed in Indian file.