_Intelligence Officer._ "There is only one road, and that is as clear as a pikestaff." _Sub._ "It is the principle that I go on." _I. O._ "Well, continue to go on it. You are doing all right." _Sub._ "That is not the point. I ought to have a guide and an interpreter. This is not the only road in the whole bally country, I presume?" _I. O._ "Well, here we are. There are five of us. You only have to command us. That's what we are here for." The subaltern with evident disapproval took stock of the Intelligence officer and his following--the Tiger and three nondescript black boys. _Sub._ "Have you been here before?" _I. O._ "Never." _Sub._ "Have your boys?" _I. O._ "I cannot say. They speak no known language!" _Sub._ "Great Heavens! I call it murder to send us out like this." A dragoon sergeant galloped in from the right flank. _Sergeant_ (_in great state of excitement_). "Please, sir, mounted men have just crossed our front." _Sub._ "Which way?--how many were there?" _Sergeant._ "About five thousand, sir!" _Sub._ "Great Caesar's ghost! Five thousand!--did you count them, sergeant?" _Sergeant._ "No, sir; nobody saw them, sir: it was only their tracks. There are so many they are all over the place, so I think that there must be about four or five thousand!" _I. O._ "I'll send my men to look at them!" _Sub._ "Yes, do. I'll go too; but I will first send a note back to the column." _I. O._ "I wouldn't do that yet. It may only be a herd of springbok!" The subaltern did not disguise his look of scorn at this reflection. But John the Kaffir, with the aid of the Tiger, announced that the tracks in question had been made on the previous day by Major Twine's squadron--perhaps eighty strong. So much for circumstantial evidence. But this is nothing. It is not fair to judge new troops on their first day on the veldt. If that sergeant is alive to-day, you might stake such credit at the bank as you possess that he would not only give you the correct number to within five of the group which made the spoor, but would also give a fair description of the nature of the party and the pace at which they had travelled. Such is experience.