While the letter was being passed
round from hand to hand, a good deal to Chris's discomfort, he had time to
look more closely than he had done before at his travelling companions.
Three of them were young lieutenants, the fourth an older man, shrewd but
kindly faced. In introducing him, his friend said: "This is our medico, Dr.
Dawlish. I hope that you will have no occasion to make his professional
acquaintance." When they had all read the letter, the senior lieutenant
said: "Now, Mr. King, we won't ask much of you to-night; we shall have all
to-morrow to listen to your story. We have all had a pretty hard day's work,
and shall before long turn in. Perhaps you will tell us to begin with what
your corps is, and how you became the officer." "There are twenty-one of us,
sir, and we are all about the same age. We were great friends together at
Johannesburg, where our fathers were for the most part connected with
mining. As things went on badly, we decided to form ourselves into a corps
if the war broke out. They chose me as their leader--for no particular
reason that I know of--and with the understanding that if I did not quite
give satisfaction, I should resign in favour of one of the others. We all
came down with our families from Johannesburg when war was declared, and
were grossly insulted and ill- treated by the Boers, several of the ladies,
among them my mother, being struck on the face with their whips; which, you
can imagine, quite confirmed our determination to fight against them. We had
all obtained our parents' consent, and when we got to Pietermaritzburg,
proceeded to get our horses and equipments. That is all."
"A great deal too short, Mr. King,"
the lieutenant said. "We want to know what steps you took, and how you
managed it. Did you come down all the way by train?"
Chris related the events of the
journey with more detail, and how, all being well furnished with money, they
had lost no time in getting all they required, and going back by train to
Newcastle.
"That is a good point to leave off,"
the officer said. "Tomorrow morning we will take your story in instalments,
and I do hope you will give us the details as minutely as you can. They will
greatly interest us, as we are going in for that sort of thing, and it will
show us what can be done by a small number of young fellows accustomed to
the country, well- mounted, and, I am sure, from what General Yule says,
remarkably well led." All were provided with flasks, and after sampling the
contents of these, they wrapped themselves in their rugs and were soon fast
asleep. The other three lads did not get off so easily, the younger officers
were all so delighted at the prospect of soon being engaged that they were
in no way inclined to sleep, and it was not until the seniors had long been
soundly off that they too agreed to postpone the rest of the boys' narrative
until the next morning. The train travelled very slowly, and
Pietermaritzburg--a distance of seventy miles--was not reached until day was
breaking. Here there was a long pause, and all alighted to stretch their
limbs. The lads ran to the end of the train; Jack was looking out.
"I thought that we should stop here,
baas," he said; "and I have got the kettles boiling and ready."
"Good man!" Chris said. "How have
the horses passed the night?"
"They have been very quiet, baas."
"That is good to know. Take the
kettles off and put three good handfuls of tea in each."
"Yes, baas."
"When they are emptied, fill them
with fresh water and put them again on the stove. When they boil, bring them
to our carriages, having of course put some tea in before you take them off
the lamp. Now, give me one of those large loaves and the ham, and all the
mugs and knives. We will start breakfast first in my compartment, Willesden;
we will pass you in the ham when we have done with it. Anyhow, the kettles
will hold enough for a mug for everyone in our three compartments, and by
the time we have drunk that the second lot will be boiling. Open a couple of
tins of milk, Jack, and then you can bring them along when you have taken
the kettles. There is no extraordinary hurry, for I heard them say that we
should wait here at least an hour."
There was some amusement among the
soldiers and sailors as Jack, carrying the kettles, and Chris, Willesden,
Brown, and Peters with ham, bread and butter, tin mugs, plates, and three
open tins of preserved milk, came along down the platform.
"What have you got here?" the doctor
asked in surprise, as they arrived at the carriage.
"Breakfast," Chris said. "It is in
the rough, but you will get it rougher than this before you get to
Ladysmith."
"Why, you must be a conjurer. Where
did you get the water from? We were just discussing whether we should go out
and try to fight our way to those barrels of beer where the Tommies are
clustered, or content ourselves with spirit and water, a drink I cannot
recommend in the morning."
There were exclamations of pleasure
from all in the carriage as Jack was handing in the things.
"We shall not want the ham, Mr.
King," the senior lieutenant said. "We provided ourselves with a great
basket of eatables and a few bottles of wine, but the idea of making tea in
the train did not, I think, occur to any of us."
Chris was not allowed to cut his
ham, for the basket contained pies, chicken, and other luxuries; but the tea
was immensely appreciated. By the time that the first mugs were empty Jack
arrived with the fresh supply, and long before the train started breakfast
was over, pipes had been lighted, and all felt thoroughly awake and cheery.
"Do you always travel so well provided, Mr. King?" the doctor asked.
"We always carry tea, preserved
milk, and preserved cocoa, and two or three gallons of paraffin for cooking
with. In case we can't find wood for a fire, it makes all the difference in
the world in our comfort."
"Now, Mr. King, we must waste no
more time; so please begin at once, or there will be no time to hear all
your story. Tell us something about your expedition to Komati-poort. The
other we shall hope to hear on another occasion in our camp, where we shall
all be glad to see you at any time."
Chris then related the idea he had
formed at Maritzburg, of blowing up the bridge, and how he had carried out
the adventure. He passed very briefly over the journey, but described fully
how they had been obliged to relinquish their original project, owing to the
bridge being so strongly guarded at both ends; and how, failing in that
respect, they had determined to do as much damage as possible to the great
assemblage of waggons filled with arms and military stores; and fully
detailed the manner in which this had been accomplished, and the aspect of
the yard on the following morning.
"Splendidly planned and carried
out!" the commander of the party exclaimed, and the others all echoed his
words. It was astonishing indeed to think that such a plan should have been
conceived and carried out by a lad no older than some of their junior
midshipmen, and assisted by only three others of the same age.
"The day before we started," the
doctor said, "I saw in one of the Durban papers a telegram from Lorenzo
Marques saying that there had been an explosion at Komati-poort, where a few
waggons had been injured and two natives killed, but that the Boers had
suffered in any way, and that the damage would be repaired and the line
opened for traffic in a few hours."
"There is only one word of truth in
that, sir," Chris said smiling, "and that is that no Boers suffered. I am
convinced that is strictly true, for the eight Boers at the bridge were
certainly instantaneously killed; and of the natives, whom I am sorry for,
there were certainly eighteen killed, together with some eight or ten
Portuguese employes. If I could by any possibility have got the natives out
of the way I would have done so. As to the Portuguese I do not feel any
great regret, for I believe all the officials in the custom-house on the
railway are bribed by the Boers to break the official orders they receive as
to observing strict neutrality, and aid in every way in passing the
materials of war into the Transvaal."
There was no time for further
conversation, for they were now within a short distance of the Tugela, and
the train was winding its way between steep hills which could have been held
successfully by a handful of men.
"The only wonder to me is," another
officer said, "that the Boers did not take up and drag away the rails all
the way from here to Estcourt. If they had lifted them out of their
sleepers, they had only to harness a rail behind each horse and trot off
with it. I know that there is a considerable amount of railway material at
Durban, but I doubt if there is anything like sufficient to make twenty
miles of road. And the business would have been still more difficult if the
Boers had collected the sleepers in great piles and burned them. Of course
they have destroyed a good many culverts and the bridge at Estcourt. It is
wonderful that the railway people should have managed to get up a temporary
trestle bridge so soon, and to make a deviation of the line to carry the
trains over. It does their engineers immense credit. This pass is widening,"
he added after putting his head out of the window. "I fancy we shall be at
Chieveley in a few minutes."
The train came to a stand-still at a
siding a short distance outside the station, which was crowded by a long
line of waggons with stores of all kinds. A number of sailors were unloading
shells for their guns, and a crowd of Kaffirs, under the orders of military
officers, were getting out the stores. As they alighted, after hearty thanks
to the officer whose kindness had been the means of their getting forward so
promptly, and who now went to report his arrival to Captain Jones, who was
superintending the operations of the sailors, Chris and his party hurried to
the rear waggon. It was a work of considerable difficulty to get the horses
out, and could not have been accomplished had there not been a stack of
sleepers near the spot. A number of these were carried and piled so as to
make a sloping gangway, by which the horses were brought down. The sleepers
being returned to their places, Chris and his friends mounted and rode to
the camp, which was placed behind a long, low ridge which screened it from
the sight of the enemy on the opposite hills, although within easy range of
their heavy guns.
Here before daybreak on the 12th,
Major-general Barton's Fusilier brigade, with a thousand Colonial Cavalry,
three field batteries, and the naval guns, had marched north, and were the
following night joined by another brigade with some cavalry. The next day
the big naval guns had opened fire; but although their shell had reached the
lower entrenchments of the Boers, their batteries on the hill had proved to
be beyond their range even with the greatest elevation that could be given
to them, while the Boer guns carried far beyond the camp.
Chris had learned at Estcourt, where
the train stopped a few minutes, that Captain Brookfield's troop formed part
of the Colonial Horse that had advanced with General Barton's brigade, and
they soon discovered their position. Leaving the horses with the natives,
they went to his tent.
"I am delighted to see you back," he
exclaimed as they entered. "I heard in confidence from one of your party,
when they joined me a week back, that you had gone on a mad-brained
adventure to try and blow up the Komati-poort bridge. I was horrified! I
had, of course, given you leave to act on your own responsibility, but I
never dreamt of your undertaking an expedition of that sort. Of course you
found it impossible to get there. A lad told me that you had reckoned on
being away six or seven weeks, and it is less than a month since the date on
which he told me you left. Anyhow, I heartily congratulate you on all
getting back."
"We got there, sir, but nothing
could be done with the bridge, it was so safely guarded. However, we did
blow up two big cannon and a battery of small ones, some ten thousand
rifles, and an enormous quantity of ammunition." "You don't say so, Chris?
Then you had better luck than you deserved. One of the correspondents told
me this morning that there was news in the town by a telegram from Lorenzo
Marques that there had been an accidental explosion at Komati-poort, but it
did not seem to be anything serious. Tell me all about it."
"I congratulate you most heartily,"
he said, when Chris had finished the story. "Of course you have written a
report of it?" "Here it is, sir. I have made it very brief, merely saying
that I had the honour to report that, with Messrs. Peters, Brown, and
Willesden, I succeeded in blowing up, with two hundredweight of dynamite,
the things I have mentioned to you, destroying a large quantity of rolling
stock, badly damaging five locomotives, and destroying roads and sidings to
such an extent that traffic can hardly be resumed for a fortnight. Is the
general here, sir?"
"No, but he will be here this
afternoon. Now, I will not detain you from your friends. No doubt they saw
you ride in, and will be most anxious to hear of your doings. You will
hardly know them again. When they came up to join us they adopted the
uniform of the corps, feeling that it would be uncomfortable going about in
a large camp in civilian dress. They brought with them uniforms for you all,
for they seemed very certain that you would return alive."
"I am very glad of that, sir, for
the soldiers all stared at us as we came up here. I suppose they took us for
sight-seers who had come up to witness the battle."
As they left the tent they found the
rest of their party, gathered in a group twenty yards away, and the
heartiest greeting was exchanged. The delight of the party knew no bounds
when they found that their four friends had not had their journey in vain.
They had two tents between them, and gathering in one of them they listened
to Peters, who told the story, as Chris said he had told it twice, and
should probably have to tell it again. The four lads at once exchanged their
civilian clothes for the uniforms that had been brought up. They were, like
those of the other Colonial corps, very simple, consisting of a loose jacket
reaching down to the hip, with turned-down collar and pockets, breeches of
the same light colour and material, loose to the knee and tighter below it;
knee boots, and felt hats looped up on one side.
The first step when they were
dressed was to mount an eminence some distance in rear of the camp, whence
they had a view of the whole country. In front of them was a wide valley
with a broad river running through it. Beyond it rose steep hills, range
behind range. It was crossed by two bridges, that of the railway, which had
been blown up and destroyed, and the road bridge, which was still intact;
though, as Sankey, who had accompanied them, told them, it was known to be
mined. To the left of the line of railway was a hill known as Grobler's
Kloof, on the summit of which a line of heavy guns could be seen. There were
other batteries on slopes at its foot commanding the bridge, to the right of
which on another hill was Fort Wylie, and in a bend of the river by the
railway could be seen the white roof of the church tower of Colenso. There
was another battery behind this, and others still farther to the right on
Mount Hlangwane. Heavy guns could be seen on other hills to the left of
Grobler's Kloof; while far away behind Colenso was the crest of Mount
Bulwana, from which a cannonade was being directed upon Ladysmith and an
occasional white burst of smoke showed that the garrison were replying
successfully. On all the lower slopes of the hills were lines, sometimes
broken, sometimes connected, rising one above another. These were the Boer
entrenchments, and Cairns said that he heard that they extended for nearly
twenty miles both to the right and left.
"It is believed that we don't see
anything like all of them," he went on, "but we really don't know much about
them, for the Boers only answer occasionally from their great guns on the
hilltops, and although yesterday the sailors fired lyddite shells at these
lower trenches, there was no reply."
"It is an awful place to take,"
Chris said, after examining the hills for a quarter of an hour with his
glasses. "We have seen that the Boers are no good in the open, but I have no
doubt they will hold their entrenchments stubbornly, and it is certain that
a great many of them are good shots. I have gone over the ground at Laing's
Nek, and that was nothing at all in comparison to this position. Do you know
how many there are supposed to be of them, Cairns?"
"They say that there are about
twenty-five thousand of them, but no one knows exactly. Natives get through
pretty often from Ladysmith, but they know no more there than we do here.
They are all jolly and cheerful there, in the thought that they will soon be
relieved."
"I hope that they are not counting
their chickens before they are hatched," Chris said. "I doubt very greatly
whether we shall carry those hills in front of us, and if we do the ranges
behind are no doubt fortified. How about crossing the river?"
"There are several drifts. There is
one about four miles to the left of the bridge, called Bridle Drift. Waggon
Drift is about as much farther on. There is a drift just this side of where
the Little Tugela runs into it, and one just farther on; there is Skeete
Drift and Molen Drift, with a pontoon ferry; there is an important one
called Potgieter's Drift, where the road from Springfield to Ladysmith
crosses; and another, Trichardt's, where a road goes to Acton Homes. I know
there are some to the right, but I don't know their names."
"Well, that is comforting, because
even if we take Colenso there would be no crossing if the bridge is mined.
And as the town will be commanded by a dozen batteries, we should not gain
much by its capture. Well, I tell you fairly that I am well satisfied that
we belong to a mounted corps and shall be only lookers-on, for even if we
win we shall certainly lose a tremendous lot of men. Is there no way of
marching round one way or the other?"
"I believe not. The only way at all
open seems to be round by Acton Homes; that is a place about fifteen miles
west of Ladysmith, and on the principal road from Van Reenen's Pass. From
there down to Ladysmith the country is comparatively open, but it is a
tremendously long way round. I don't know how far, but I should say forty or
fifty miles; and certainly the road will in many places be commanded by Boer
guns; and they will most likely have fortified strong positions at various
points. But, of course, the great difficulty will be transport; I am sure we
have nothing like enough to take stores for the army all that distance.
Besides, Chris, I don't see that we should gain any advantage from going to
Ladysmith that way, we should be as far as ever from thrashing the Boers,
and certainly could not remain in Ladysmith; we should eat up all the
provisions there in no time."
"I don't like the outlook at all,"
Peters said.
"Ah, there is a general officer with
a staff riding into the camp. Most likely it is Buller. We had better go
down, for if Brookfield gives in my report he may want to speak to me."
The party went down the hill. When
they reached their camp they were at once sent for to Captain Brookfield's
tent.
"I am glad that you are back," he
said. "Sir Redvers Buller has just ridden up on to the ridge, I will speak
to him as he comes down. You had better come with me and stand a short
distance off. Bring your rifles with you, and stand in military order; you
three in line, and Chris two paces in front of you."
Having got their rifles they
followed Captain Brookfield till he stopped at the foot of the slope below
the point where the general and his staff were standing. Their leader
advanced some fifty yards ahead of them. In a quarter of an hour the party
were seen descending the hill. Captain Brookfield stepped forward and
saluted the general as he came along a horse's length in front of his staff.
Sir Redvers checked his horse a little impatiently.
"What is it sir?" he said sharply.
"I cannot attend to camp details now."
"I command the Maritzburg Scouts,"
Captain Brookfield said. "Three of my men, with Mr. King, who commands the
section to which they belong, have just returned. I wish to hand you Mr.
King's report; it contains news which is, I think, of importance."
"Give it to Lord Gerard," the
general said briefly, motioning to one of the officers behind him. "Please
see what it is about, Gerard." And he then moved forward again, briefly
acknowledging Captain Brookfield's salute. He had gone, however, but twenty
yards when Lord Gerard rode up to him and handed to him the open dispatch.
"It is of importance, sir."
Supposing that it was merely the
report of four scouts who had gone out reconnoitring, and with his mind
absorbed with weightier matters, the general had hardly given the matter a
thought. Without checking his horse he glanced at the paper, and then
abruptly reined in his charger and read it through attentively. Then he
turned to where Captain Brookfield was still standing and called him up.
"I do not quite understand this
report, sir," he said. "Is it possible that your men have been up to
Komati-poort? I gathered from your words that they had merely returned from
reconnoitring."
"No, sir; they only came in this
morning by the train from Durban with the naval detachment with details."
"But how in the world did they get
to Komati-poort?"
"They started from Maritzburg, sir,
and rode up through Zululand and Swaziland. Their object was to blow up the
bridge, and to stop supplies of munitions of war continuing to pass up
through Lorenzo Marques. I may say that they acted on their own initiative.
The section to which they belong is composed entirely of gentlemen's sons
from Johannesburg; they provide their horses and equipment, and draw no pay
or rations, and when they joined my corps made it a condition that so long
as not required for regular work they should be allowed to scout on their
own account."
Before calling up Captain Brookfield
the general had handed back the despatch to Lord Gerard, with the words,
"Pass it round."
"Are those your men?" the general
said, pointing to the little squad.
"Yes, sir."
Sir Redvers rode up to them, and on
returning their salute, said: "You have done well indeed, gentlemen; it was
a most gallant action. Have you your own horse with you?" he asked Chris.
"Yes, sir." "Then mount at once and
join me as I leave camp. Then you can tell me about this matter on my way
back."
Chris was soon on horseback. He
waited at a short distance while the general talked with General Barton, and
as soon as he saw him turn to ride off cantered up and joined the staff. The
general looked round as he did so. He beckoned to him to come up to his
side.
"Now, sir, let me hear more about
this. The captain of the troop that you belong to, tells me that you and
twenty other young fellows, all from Johannesburg, formed yourselves into a
party of scouts, and are making war at your own expense, and that although
in a certain way you joined his troop you really act independently when it
so pleases you."
"Yes, sir. We and our families have
received great indignities from the Boers; and although we are conscious
that we should be of little use as troops, we thought that we could do
service as scouts on our own account, and have been lucky in inflicting some
blows on them. I was fortunate enough to attract Colonel Yule's attention at
Dundee, and he furnished me with an open letter addressed to you, and to
officers commanding stations, saying that we had done so."
"Have you it about you?"
"Yes, sir."
Sir Redvers held out his hand, and
Chris handed him the letter. "So you went into the Boer camp! Do you speak
Dutch well?"
"Yes, sir; we all speak Dutch
fairly, and most of us Kaffir also, that was why we thought that we should
be more useful scouting; until now we have all been dressed as young Boers,
and could, I think, pass without suspicion anywhere."
"Now as to this other affair," Sir
Redvers said, returning Colonel Yule's letter. "You had better take this, it
will be useful to you another time. Now tell me all about it. Was it
entirely your own idea?"
"I first thought of it, sir, and my
three friends agreed to go with me. I did not want a large number. We
started from Maritzburg with our own Kaffir servant, and two Zulus and two
Swazis to act as guides, two ponies, each of which carried a hundredweight
of dynamite; we had also a spare riding horse."
He then related their proceedings
from the time of their start to their arrival at Komati-poort; their failure
at the bridge in consequence of the strong guard that the Boers had set over
it; and how, finding that the main object of their journey could not be
carried out, they proceeded to wreck the station yard and its contents.
"Thank you, Mr. King," the general
said, when Chris concluded by mentioning briefly how they had ridden down to
Lorenzo Marques, and taken a ship to Durban, and come up by train. "I saw
the telegram of the accident at Komati-poort. I imagined that it was
probably more severe than was stated, but certainly had no idea that such
wholesale damage had been effected, or that it was the work of any of our
people. I think that it would be unwise for me to take any public notice of
it at present; possibly there may be another attempt made to destroy that
bridge. If nothing more is said about it, the Boers may in time cease to be
careful, and a few determined men landed at Lorenzo Marques may manage to
succeed where you were unable to do so. It would be worth any money to us to
put a stop to the constant flow of arms and ammunition that is going on via
Lorenzo Marques. I consider your expedition to have been in the highest
degree praiseworthy, and to have been conducted with great skill." "My
father is a mining engineer, and managing-director of several mines round
Johannesburg, general. I have been working there under him and learning the
business, and therefore know a good deal about dynamite, and what a certain
quantity would effect."
"Have you thought of going into the
army? because if so, I will appoint you and your three friends to regiments
at once, and you will be gazetted as soon as my report goes home."
"I am very much obliged to you,
general, but I have no thought of entering the army. I will, of course,
mention it to my friends. I have never heard them say anything on the
subject. We are fighting because we hate the Boers. No one can say, unless
he has been resident there, what we have all had to put up with, for the
past year especially. On the way down the Boers not only threatened to
strike us, but struck many of the ladies, my mother among them, besides
robbing everyone of watches and all other valuables. If it had not been for
that, some of us might have changed our minds before we got down here. That
settled the matter. And besides, sir, I hope that we shall be able to do
more good in our own way than if we became regular officers, as we know
nothing about drill and should be of very little good, whereas we do
understand our own way of fighting. I can say so without boasting, for we
have twice thrashed the Boers; once when they were twice our number, and the
other time when they were nearly four times as strong as we were."
"Go on doing so, Mr. King; go on
doing so, you cannot do better. However, if any of your three friends, or
all of them, choose to accept my offer, it is open to them."
They were by this time close to
Frere, and the general went on: "I am sorry that I cannot ask you to dine
with me this evening, as we shall all be too busy for anything like a
regular meal, for in a few hours there will be a general advance.
Good-evening. When I am less busy I shall be glad to hear about those two
fights that you speak of. You colonists have taught us a few lessons
already."
Chris saluted, wheeled his horse
round, and cantered back to Chieveley. There was much satisfaction among the
whole of the party when Chris related what General Buller had said. None of
his three companions had any desire to accept a commission. Willesden's
father was a doctor with a large practice in Johannesburg, and the lad
himself was going home after the war was over to study for the profession
and to take his medical degree; while Brown and Peters were both sons of
very wealthy capitalists.
"If I could not have done any
fighting any other way I should have liked a commission very much. Of course
I could have thrown it up at the end of the war. But I would a great deal
rather be on horseback than on foot, and I own I have no inclination to
fight my way across those hills. Talana was a pretty serious business, but
it was child's play to what this will be."
"Very well," Chris said; "I did not
think that any of you would care for it, although I could not answer for
you. There is no need for hurry in sending in a reply; there will be time to
do that when we get into Ladysmith. Then I will get Captain Brookfield to
draw up the kind of letter that ought to be sent, for I have not the least
idea how I should address a commander-in-chief. Of course, a thing of this
sort ought to be done in a formal sort of way; I could not very well say,
'My dear general, my three friends don't care to accept your kind offer.
Yours very truly.'" There was a general laugh, and then they talked over the
coming fight, for it was now generally known that the attack was to be made
in a couple of days at latest. The next morning General Buller's column
started before daybreak, and were by nine o'clock encamped on the open veldt
three miles north of Chieveley; Barton's brigade having already marched out
to the site of a new camp, some five thousand yards south of Colenso.
Although well within reach of their guns, the Boers made no effort to hinder
the operation, or to shell the camp after it was formed. It was evidently
their policy to conceal their guns until the last moment, and although a
very heavy bombardment of their positions was maintained all day by the
naval guns, no reply whatever was elicited, though through the glasses it
could be seen that much damage was being done to the entrenchments.
"I don't like this silence," Chris
said, as he and some of the others were standing watching the hills in front
of them. "It does not seem natural when you are being pelted like that not
to shy something back. I am afraid it will be a terribly hot business when
they do open fire tomorrow."
There had been a discussion that
morning whether the four natives Chris had engaged for his expedition should
be taken on permanently, and they unanimously agreed that they should be. It
was quite possible that all the colonial corps would at some time be called
upon to act as infantry, and it would be a good thing to have six men to
look after the twenty- five horses while they were away. Then, too, it would
be very handy to have a stretcher party of their own. On the question being
put to them, the four men had willingly agreed to follow the party whenever
they went into a fight, to take two stretchers with which they could at once
carry any who might be wounded back to camp. They were all strong fellows
belonging to fighting peoples, and would, the boys had no doubt, show as
much courage as the Indian bearers had displayed at Dundee and Elandslaagte.
In the evening Captain Brookfield sent for Chris.
"The orders for to-morrow are out,"
he said, "as far as we are concerned. A thousand mounted infantry and one
battery are to move in the direction of Hlangwane--that is the hill, you
know, this side of the river to the right of Colenso. We shall cover the
right flank of the general movement and endeavour to take up a position on
the hill, where the battery will pepper the Boers on the kopjes north of the
bridge. Two mounted troops of three and five hundred men will cover the
right and left flanks respectively and protect the baggage. Half my troop
are to accompany Dundonald, the other half will form a part of the force
guarding the left wing. Your party will be with this force. You have had
your share of fighting, and none of the others have yet had a chance."
"Very well, sir, I shall not be
sorry to be on this duty; for naturally we shall have a good view of the
whole fight, while if we were engaged we should see nothing except what was
going on close to us."
"Yes, it will be something to see,
Chris, and something to hear, for I doubt whether there has been so heavy a
fire as that which will be kept up to-morrow, ever since war began. We have
some twenty-three thousand men, and the Boers more than as many, and what
with magazine-guns, machine-guns, and fast-firing cannon of all sizes, it
will be an inferno."
