“‘You catch De Wet and I come to your Staff College—eh,’ says Adrian, laughing. ‘But you are so slow, Generaal. Why are you so slow? For a month,’ he says, ‘you do so well and strong that we say we shall hands-up and come back to our farms. Then you send to England and make us a present of two—three—six hundred young men, with rifles and wagons and rum and tobacco, and such a great lot of cartridges, that our young men put up their tails and start all over again. If you hold an ox by the horn and hit him by the bottom he runs round and round. He never goes anywhere. So, too, this war goes round and round. You know that, Generaal!’ “‘Quite right, Adrian,’ says the General; ‘but you must believe your Bible.’ “‘Hooh!’ says Adrian, and reaches for the whisky. ‘I’ve never known a Dutchman a professing Atheist, but some few have been rather active Agnostics since the British sat down in Pretoria. Old man Van Zyl—he told me—had soured on religion after Bloemfontein surrendered. He was a Free Stater for one thing.’ “‘He that believeth,’ says the General, ‘shall not make haste. That’s in Isaiah. We believe we’re going to win, and so we don’t make haste. As far as I’m concerned I’d like this war to last another five years. We’d have an army then. It’s just this way, Mr. Zigler,’ he says, ‘our people are brimfull of patriotism, but they’ve been born and brought up between houses, and England ain’t big enough to train ’em—not if you expect to preserve.’ “‘Preserve what?’ I says. ‘England?’ “‘No. The game,’ he says; ‘and that reminds me, gentlemen, we haven’t drunk the King and Fox-hunting.’ “So they drank the King and Fox-hunting. I drank the King because there’s something about Edward that tickles me (he’s so blame British); but I rather stood out on the Fox-hunting. I’ve ridden wolves in the cattle-country, and needed a drink pretty bad afterwards, but it never struck me as I ought to drink about it—he-red-it-arily. “‘No, as I was saying, Mr. Zigler,’ he goes on, ‘we have to train our men in the field to shoot and ride. I allow six months for it; but many column-commanders—not that I ought to say a word against ’em, for they’re the best fellows that ever stepped, and most of ’em are my dearest friends—seem to think that if they have men and horses and guns they can take tea with the Boers. It’s generally the other way about, ain’t it, Mr. Zigler?’ “‘To some extent, Sir,’ I said.