Mafeking has entered into warlike preparations with commendable zeal, but in reality men are uncertain whether to face the music or to skip with their women and children. Ostensibly they wish to bear the brunt of an attack upon their town, but as time wears on and the numbers of the Boer force concentrated upon the border increase, the number of men available for actual volunteer service grows beautifully less. Mines have been laid down, fortifications thrown up, the volunteers and local ambulance services have been called out, and an armoured train patrols the line. The staff officers are everywhere, a crowd of journalists drifts about smothered beneath a variety of secret reports. Every one wears a worried look, and still the expected does not happen. To break the monotony of false alarms, of the sound of armed feet marching anywhere, of bells by day and rockets by night, of irresponsible gossips chattering upon subjects they do not understand, of the plague of locusts thick as fleas on Margate Sands (a plague as great as the military bore)--there is lacking but one thing--WAR. The troops want it to prove their efficiency, the journalists demand it to justify their existence, the countryside approves since it has sent the price of foodstuffs and of native labour to a premium, the Boers want it as the first step in that great scheme by which they hope to reduce London to ashes and sweep the red-vests of Great Britain into complete oblivion. But if the path of glory lies in that direction for the Boer sharpshooter, Mafeking will present him with a splendid spectacle just so soon as the curtain rises upon the drama of mortal combat between Boer and Britisher. It is a straggling town this Mafeking, and covers an area wider than its dignity demands. But should Commandant Cronje, who is hovering upon the border at Louw's Farm with 6,000 Boers, come down, in that spirit of unctuous rectitude which epitomises the Scripture and so distinguishes the Boers, a bill will be settled by this little town against the man who, already the hero of many historical iniquities, baulked Jameson of his raid. Upon this point Colonel Baden-Powell's notice to the inhabitants is instructive:-- NOTICE. DEFENCE MINES. "The inhabitants are warned that mines are being laid at various points outside the town in connection with the defences. Their position will be marked, in order to avoid accidents, by small red flags. "Cattle herds and others should be warned accordingly. "Mafeking: Dated this 7th day of October, 1899." If this throws a sidelight upon the situation here, the second notice paints in the background with gloomy shadows:-- "NOTICE.--It is considered desirable to state to the inhabitants of Mafeking what is the situation up to date.