I once had a brave scout in my force in the South African War. He was
a brave man and an active scout, but he was not good at obeying
orders, and in the end this cost him his life and did harm to our
plans.
We had news of a force of the enemy which did not know of our presence
in that part of the country. So we hid ourselves, meaning to surprise
and capture them when they came along.
The orders were that not a sound was to be made and not a man
_was_ to show himself, and these orders were faithfully carried
out--except by this one scout. He thought he knew better than others,
and he slipped away unseen to go and look out for the enemy's
approach.
Presently he spied a hostile scout and fired at him; the enemy's scout
returned his fire, and after a short duel both of them fell mortally
wounded.
But the noise of their shooting gave the alarm to the enemy's force;
more came upon the spot, and, finding a British scout there, they
naturally guessed that there must be more in the neighbourhood, so
they took all precautions, sent out scouts in all directions, and
then, coming on our tracks, at last discovered our hiding-place, and
gave warning to their own side, who were then able to make their
escape.
If my scout had only learnt, when a boy, how to obey orders, it might
have made a great difference that day to him, to us--and to the enemy.
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