ened to dislike!

The roar of the navy's Four-Point-Sevens, their crash, their rush as they
passed, the shrill whine of the shrapnel, the barking of the howitzers,
and the mechanical, regular rattle of the quick-firing Maxims, which
sounded like the clicking of many mowing-machines on a hot summer's day,
tore the air with such hideous noises that one's skull ached from the
concussion, and one could only be heard by shouting. But more impressive
by far than this hot chorus of mighty thunder and petty hammering, was
the roar of the wind which was driven down into the valley beneath, and
which swept up again in enormous waves of sound. It roared like a wild
hurricane at sea. The illusion was so complete, that you expected, by
looking down, to see the Tugela lashing at her banks, tossing the spray
hundreds of feet in air, and battling with her sides of rock. It was
like the roar of Niagara in a gale, and yet when you did look below, not
a leaf was stirring, and the Tugela was slipping forward, flat and
sluggish, and in peace.

The long procession of yellow figures was still advancing along the
bottom of the valley, toward the right, when on the crest of the
farthermost hill fourteen of them appeared suddenly, and ran forward and
sprang into the trenches.

Perched against the blue sky on the highest and most distant of the three
hills, they looked terribly lonely and insufficient, and they ran about,
this way and that, as though they were very much surprised to find
themselves where they were. Then they settled down into the Boer trench,
from our side of it, and began firing, their officer, as his habit is,
standing up behind them. The hill they had taken had evidently been
abandoned to them by the enemy, and the fourteen men in khaki had taken
it by "default." But they disappeared so suddenly into the trench, that
we knew they were not enjoying their new position in peace, and every one
looked below them, to see the arriving reinforcements. They came at
last, to the number of ten, and scampered about just as the others had
done, looking for cover. It seemed as if we could almost hear the
singing of the bullet when one of them dodged, and it was with a distinct
sense of relief, and of freedom from further responsibility, that we saw
the ten disappear also, and become part of the yellow stones about them.
Then a very wonderful movement began to agitate the men upon the two
remaining hills. They began to creep up t