A soldier has to go when he is told.

After a period of humdrum service he was sent off with a section of mounted infantry to round up a certain farm-house suspected of harbouring Boer combatants.

The excursion was a mere matter of routine--of humdrum commonplace.

As usual it was made at night, but this was a night of full dazzling moon.

The farm lay in a hollow of the veldt, first seen from the crest of a kopje.