CHAPTER X.
EXCHANGED FOR A HORSE-THIEF--BACK TO MAFEKING AFTER TWO MONTHS' WANDERINGS "Hail, fellow! well met!"-- SWIFT.
Next morning I was awakened at 6 a.m.by Mr.Drake knocking at my door, and telling me I was to be ready in half an hour, as Colonel Baden-Powell had consented to exchange me for Petrus Viljoen.

This exchange had placed our Commanding Officer in an awkward position.

The prisoner was, as I stated before, a criminal, and under the jurisdiction of the civil authorities, who would not take upon themselves the responsibility of giving him up.

Under these circumstances Lord Edward Cecil had come forward and represented to Colonel Baden-Powell that it was unseemly for an Englishwoman to be left in the hands of the Boers, and transported to Pretoria by the rough coach, exposed to possible insults and to certain discomforts.

He even declared himself prepared to take any consequent blame on his shoulders, and, being the Prime Minister's son, his words had great weight.