"
Many a man who went to the Klondike did not, for reasons best
known to himself, talk about his past. But it is characteristic of
Burnham that, though he lived there two years, his associates did
not know, until the British Government snatched him from among
them, that he had not always been a prospector like themselves.
I was on the same ship that carried Burnham the latter half of his
journey, from Southampton to Cape Town, and every night for
seventeen nights was one of a group of men who shot questions at
him. And it was interesting to see a fellow-countryman one had
heard praised so highly so completely make good. It was not as
though he had a credulous audience of commercial tourists.
Among the officers who each evening gathered around him were
Colonel Gallilet of the Egyptian cavalry, Captain Frazer
commanding the Scotch Gillies, Captain Mackie of Lord Roberts's
staff, each of whom was later killed in action; Colonel Sir Charles
Hunter of the Royal Rifles, Major Bagot, Major Lord Dudley, and
Captain Lord Valentia. Each of these had either held command in
border fights in India or the Sudan or had hunted big game, and the
questions each asked were the outcome of his own experience and
observation.
Not for a single evening could a faker have submitted to the
midnight examination through which they put Burnham and not
have exposed his ignorance.
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