But the good-humoured revelling of the dinner-table was shortly to be changed for the stern reality of war. The brigadier and his staff had barely bid farewell to their happy hostess and returned to their bivouac when the voice of a tired and excited man was heard calling to be directed to headquarters. It was the captain of cyclists who had started that morning before daybreak for Strydenburg. The man's face was a study when, having flung himself clear of his machine, which was clanging like a _teuf-teuf_, he presented himself in the solitary tent which during halts served the headquarters of the little column as a living and sleeping apartment. In the dim light of a flickering candle, it seemed that he was swathed in a sheet, so thick and white was the crust of dust which covered him from head to foot. He staggered into the mess-tent, swayed a moment, tried to salute, and then dropped in a heap on to the camp chair offered to him. _Brigadier._ "Give him some brandy." After a long drink from the brandy-bottle the little captain of cyclists recovered sufficiently to smile at his own weakness. _Brigadier._ "Well, have you been fighting--where's your crush?" _Cyclist Captain._ "Fighting--there never has been such fighting in this war, it has been simply bloody!" _B._ "Sanguinary, my boy; well, are you the last survivor? You rather remind me of the last man of the poet's imagination." _C. C._ (_dejectedly_) "It has been a long, sad, and terrible day. Harvey of Damant's is mortally wounded, and I have had a man wounded!" _B._ "The devil you have. I thought at least that you must have been annihilated. Where are the rest of you, then?" _C. C._ "Lost or captured, I am afraid. Seventeen were captured in succession at the top of one rise. I only got through by the skin of my teeth and the luck of there only being three Boers at the top of the hill." _B._ (_unconcernedly_) "Horrid adventure! What luck there were not four Boers! But give me a detailed story. Have you been into Strydenburg? have you seen any of the staff of the other column?"