On Friday a party of the Lancashire Regiment went out to cut off a Boer
water supply at Curtis Farm. A body of the Light Horse with guns
accompanied them--as a hint to the enemy that intervention would be
resented. The Boer ignored the hint and lost no time in lodging his
protest against our infringement of "the game's" rules. The "Lanks.,"
however, were not to be deterred; they stuck stoically to their work
until their object was accomplished. Our guns had meanwhile kept hurling
defiance at the enemy; but there were no casualties on either side.
These aquatic operations seriously inconvenienced the Boers; they
compelled them to make wide _detours_, to travel a long distance for
water around the great ring which encircled Kimberley; the short cuts
were dangerous. A sad thing happened when night came. A corporal in
charge of a piquet went out to inspect his men. Unfortunately the sentry
on duty was unaware of the fact, and on the corporal's return he was
mistaken in the darkness for a marauding Boer--with the pitiable result
that the sentry shot him dead.

In the morning we had news again. It was simply the _truth_ concerning
Colenso; fiction could not improve a deal on the loss of ten or twelve
British guns. We were unaccustomed to so much candour in the matter of
reverses, and this brutal revelation of the truth overwhelmed and
astonished us--though we could scarcely pretend that we had not _asked_
for it. A "Slip" unfolded the tale in all its naked veracity. It was
_news_, fair and square value for the "thruppence," as siege value goes;
but we were in no mood to appreciate the novelty of that; the
circumstances were too distressing. Buller was roundly abused, and his
staff also were included in a comprehensive denunciation; so that
whoever was at fault in the Colenso collapse did not escape the wrath of
Kimberley. As one of the Pitts (was it one of the Pitts?) has aptly