The Story of Baden-Powell: 'The Wolf That Never Sleeps' — John Shaqi
The Story of Baden-Powell: 'The Wolf That Never Sleeps'Begbie, Harold
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The Story of Baden-Powell: 'The Wolf That Never Sleeps'
Begbie, Harold
Baden-Powell of Gilwell, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, Baron, 1857-1941
Baden-Powell has all the qualifications that go to make a good scout.
His eye is as keen as the hawk's, and many a time "by keeping his eyes
skinned" he has done useful, if unobtrusive, work. Once he was riding
in the night with despatches for headquarters' camp, guiding himself
by the stars. Arriving at the place where he thought the camp ought to
be, he was surprised to find no sign of it. Dismounting from his
saddle, he was thinking of lying up for the night (rather than
overshoot the mark) when a distant spark, for the fraction of a
second, caught his eye. Jumping into the saddle again, he rode towards
the place where the spark had flickered its brief moment, and there he
found a sentry smoking a pipe. The red glow of the baccy in the bowl
had guided B.-P. with his despatches safely to camp.
But not always does Baden-Powell see what he says he sees. On one
occasion in Kashmir he was matching his eyes against a shikari, and
the story of the contest is related by B.-P. in his _Aids to Scouting_
(published by Gale and Polden, London and Aldershot): "He pointed out
a hillside some distance off, and asked me if I could see how many
cattle there were grazing on it. It was only with difficulty that I
could see any cattle at all, but presently I capped him by asking him
if he could see the man in charge of the cattle. Now, I could not
actually see this myself, but knowing that there must be a man with
the herd, and that he would probably be up-hill above them somewhere,
and as there was a solitary tree above them (and it was a hot, sunny
day), I guessed he would be under this tree." And when the incredulous
shikari looked through the field-glasses he marvelled at the vision of
the white man--the herdsman was under the tree as happy as a hen in a
dust-bath. The uses of inductive reasoning!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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