This is the first time that the Knolly Estate has allowed the great man's memoirs to be published. What follows is the thirteenth chapter of 'The African Adventure'.

DeVries Light Horse Part 1

'The worlds gone all red!' I thought to myself 'It must be the other
place... hang on wasn't the balloon mostly red... Ha, that's it. But
hold on, what's this damp patch on the ground? Blood? Oh no I'm bleeding.' I put my hand to my mouth and tasted the tartness of a wasted Burgundy.

'Bertie I thought we'd drunk all the wine and would you mind awfully
getting off me your squashing my field glasses. I know we are good
friends...'

'Mummmf! mummf!'

'Ah so, it's my foot in your mouth. Right lets rectify that straight
away.'

'Paaah! Thanks Knolly. Well we seem to be on good ole terre ferma. Can you stand ?'

'As I have already pointed out Bertie old fella, not until you get off me.'

'Right... right... still, what a landing, eh? And we're both still alive. Shame about those last bottles though.' He stopped and listened then put his ear to the ground somewhere near my knee. 'Knolly, judging by the vibrations there appears to be rather a lot of military boots of various sizes heading this way.'

At this point my hearing picked up on voices shouting all around us and then numerous hands and arms seemingly appeared from nowhere pulling the balloon canopy away and letting the sun and bright blue sky flood in.

'Look lively chaps!' came a clipped sounding voice that I seemed to recognise from my illustrious past. 'We've only found the odd sandwich and broken bottle. No body seems to have fallen out so they must be under this lot.'

'Sir, sir, over 'ere, sir . We've found someone.'

'Good show that man, Sergeant... quick as you can!' At this point someone grabbed me by the leg and began to pull. I let out a yell.

'Hey! Steady on there. I've not broken anything yet and I'd like it to keep it that way!' The hands dropped my leg in shock and replied

'Sir, this body's alive.'

'I'll be the judge of that trooper.' I slowly rolled on to my hands and knees and crawled out from under the balloon, got to my feet
and stood blinking at the sight before me. The uniformed officer in front of me seemed to be doing likewise and we spoke as one.

'Good Lord, it's Knolly.'

'Great Scott, Monty... I thought I recognised the voice.' We ran to each other and did the old Addlie and Stanner hand shake as though we'd never left those hallowed halls. The rest of the men looked on totally amazed at this sight but were soon shaken from their trance like state when a voice near the ground said.

'Would somebody awfully mind giving a chap a hand up?' I turned and ran back to help the foie gras-encrusted Bertie saying 'look
who we've landed on.' and pointed behind me. Bertie stared.

'Cripes, it's Montague LeBoeuf.' He walked over to him and proceeded to do the self same greeting.

'This is marvellous, just like old times.' Monty pointed at the remnants of the balloon. 'This would be one of your experiments? Eh, Bertie?' Bertie looked over to me and blinked:

'WHAT'S OUR ALIBI THIS TIME STOP HOW MUCH DO WE TELL HIM STOP' I blinked in reply:

'I'LL BAT FIRST STOP'

'Of course it is, Monty' I replied. 'You know Bertie and his mad cap
ideas - thought we'd try to circumvent the world one day. Ha ha ha, but
we needed to try and get across Africa first.' Bertie rolled his eyes at me but went along anyway.

'Ha ha, yes, we thought we might be able to help out mapping the continent while we were doing it too.' Monty pondered on this.

'I could see that being very useful, very useful indeed.'

'But tell me Monty, the last I heard of you and the rest of the mob was when you were with Wolsley and helped to take Cairo without a shot being fired so I'm told.' He grinned at this.

'You've been talking to the 'Big white stick haven't you?' Bertie and I looked at each other and then back at Monty. 'Oh, sorry, Big Edward never told you his regimental nickname then?'

'Hang on, though!' piped up Bertie. 'You and the lads signed on with the Life Guards and, judging by the uniforms, this isn't them, so what regiment's this?'

'Bertie, these and the rest back up at the ridge are the DeVries Light Horse.' and he waved his hand. 'This is just some new fangled exercise to see how all the men pull together. Commanders new thinking.' Bertie stood open mouthed.

'Um... forgive me, but you seem to be somewhat lacking in the horse department Light or otherwise.' Monty looked hurt.

'Yes, well the Regiment's only recently been formed and no ones quite sure how many horses we're going to need.' He paused and smiled. 'I've got one though.' Bertie smiled back.

'Oh... good.' he said and blinked: 'POOR FELLA STOP' back to me.

'I assume that you haven't given up your commission?' I enquired.

'Lord no, no not at all. But after Cairo and the mad dash to try and rescue Gordon at Khartoum things went a bit quiet. We got posted back to England and me and a few of the others got a bit fed up after a few years of Home Service and ceremonial duties and so sailed here to see what was going on.'

'So who's here with you, then?' said Bertie coming back to life.

'Oh there's only Stumpy, Doc and Domino that you'll know. The rest are all local volunteers and some from other regiments. There's even a couple of Navy lads. I'll take you up there in a jiffy. But tell me, Bertie, will this contraption of yours fly again? Only I'm sure our patron could make use of it.'

'I'm not sure yet.' said Bertie giving me a sideways glance. 'If we can get it all on a wagon or something I could have a look later, but what I need now is a drink and some food.'

'... and a wash Bertie.' I added. 'Tell me, Monty, what rank do you hold with this lot?'

'Captain, same as with the Guards.' He stopped and yelled over to his Sergeant. 'Sergeant Ireland, find me a couple of spare mounts for these chaps and then get some troopers to fetch a wagon and get this lot (he waved in the direction of the balloon and basket) loaded and back to camp.' Ireland looked us up and down as if to say 'how come they get the horses.' saluted and went off to bark at his men in the way Sergeants have done through the ages. Monty saluted back.

'Good man, that. Well, good to have on your side - hate to have him as an enemy. Anyway, back to you two. Lets get back to camp then I'll introduce you to Colonel Nix and then we can jaw away the hours.'

'This Colonel Nix, is he the chap behind all this exercise stuff then?' asked Bertie.

'Hugh?' Monty laughed. 'No, he's not an ideas man. Good leader, though, and knows the country well enough but not pukka army if you know what I mean.' We nodded.

'I take it, then, that someone else is the brains and finance behind the Regiment?' Monty cupped his hands and helped me into the saddle.

'Brains, finance and some would say beauty. You'll meet Mrs DeVries at the Regimental Headquarters along with the others. This is our last day on exercise and we start our return tomorrow.'

At this Bertie missed his footing getting into the stirrup and smacked headfirst into the saddle.

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