From dawn the ambulance people had been at work shifting the hospital tents and all the surgical necessities, but at five in the afternoon a note came back from the officer in camp urging us not to send any more patients.

"There is no water, no rations," it said; "not nearly enough tents are pitched.

If more wounded come, they will have to spend the night on the open veldt." But the long train was already made up.

The wounded were packed in it.

It was equally impossible to leave them there or to take them back.