BURNHAM'S GREATEST EXPLOIT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 63

BURNHAM'S GREATEST EXPLOIT.

On the night of June 2 Burnham the Scout was well ahead of the column searching the county when he came right on the top of a commando of the Foreign Legion. In the faint light they saw him, and shouted "Surrender!" Bending bis head over the horse's neck, Burnham wheeled round and galloped full speed. Spt! spt ! the Mausers spoke. With hand and knee and heel the scout— fine horseman that he ii s s — urged his steed to its utmost stride. He, riding as a back-woodsman rides, was invisible along the back and neck of the horse. Two hundred yards he rides scatheless. Three. Four. His pursuers cannot see him now, 'but they fire at a venture. Five hundred yards. A bullet out of the darkness strikes the noble beast through the heart. With one ibound it crashes to the ground, rolling over and over in its death agony. And Burnham the Scout, no time to jump from the saddle, rolls over and over with the stricken horse. Then they lie still — steed and rider. They do not hear the cracks of Mausers nor the whistle of the bullets as the Dutchmen still volley into the night. Hour succeeds hour. The faint light of the young moon fades away. Still the two brown forms lie on the veldt. The blackness of the hour before the dawn blots them out. The first grey shaft of the cold sun reveals them again still motionless. They are stiff with cold, so freezing is a South African night in June. The mighty sun becomes goiden. Hot and hotter grows the air. But the two brown figures huddled oh the sand take aio more heed of the .blazing heat than they did of th« freezing cold. Can this be the end of that brave life V Has Burnham the »Scout braved death a hundred times in two continents, facing the rifle of the white man, the spsar and assegai of the savage, ■to end his days to a stray bullet, unarmed? See ! He moves ! He opens his eyes ! fie looks round with the sightless gaze of a man whose senses return to him after long absence. He tries to raise himself, but his limbs and back refuse to do their office. His back feels as if it were broken. But worse than that, the muscles of the abdomen seem to be badly ruptured. After two hours he manages to rise to his knees. ife crawls to his horse. Dead. H2 unstraps from the saddle the sack of tools and gun-cotton. And then, espying in the distance a Kaffir kraal, he crawls painfully towards it. The kraal is deserted, the owners of it scared from their homes by grim war. Into it Bnrnham makes his way, still carrying his precious sack, and falls asleep once more. It might be thought that the first proceeding of the injured rail-way-wrecker, after recovering his strength a little, would be to make for the British lines ; especially since he has no food. But this was not the way of Captain Frank Burnham. He might be done for — he thought he was, in fact — but so long as he had strength to crawl, crawl he would towards the Delagoa Bay railway line. And crawl he did. He started at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon from the kraal, sometimes able to walk a few yards, then obliged to take to all-fours. Inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard, mile by mile, as sure and as remorseless as Fate itself, the scout drew near the railway. In the afternoon (June 3) he heard guns, and knew that "Bobs' was on the move. "Which reminded him that "Bobs"' was relying on him to do a service to the army. Should he disappoint the great Little Man ■who trusted him? Not a bit of it. The railway about Pretoria was going to be cut, or Frank Burnham would know the reason why. More horrid wrenching of body-muscles. There it is — the railway embankment. Cannily. cannily, Captain Burnham. There is a sentr3 r . Him you must crawl round. Up the embankment. Jfow for a hole ; and then for a glorious bit of fireworks. Doggedly the great scout made the resting place for the gun-cotton, picking out the earth grain by grain. Then in went the charge — a goodly one. The fuss — lighted under cover of the .smasher hat — then a hurried crawl to get out of the flying debris ; for the scout had blasted a culvert., to make sure of damaging the line.