olonel Carleton make
his way back at once upon the loss of his guns and ammunition, while
it was still dark? One or two considerations are evident. In the first
place, it is natural to a good soldier to endeavour to retrieve a
situation rather than to abandon his enterprise. His prudence, did he
not do so, might become the subject of public commendation, but might
also provoke some private comment. A soldier's training is to take
chances, and to do the best he can with the material at his disposal.
Again, Colonel Carleton and Major Adye knew the general plan of the
battle which would be raging within a very few hours, and they quite
understood that by withdrawing they would expose General White's left
flank to attack from the forces (consisting, as we know now, of the
Orange Freestaters and of the Johannesburg Police) who were coming from
the north and west. He hoped to be relieved by eleven, and he believed
that, come what might, he could hold out until then. These are the
most obvious of the considerations which induced Colonel Carleton to
determine to carry out so far as he could the programme which had been
laid down for him and his command. He marched up the hill and occupied
the position.

His heart, however, must have sunk when he examined it. It was very
large--too large to be effectively occupied by the force which he
commanded. The length was about a mile and the breadth four hundred
yards. Shaped roughly like the sole of a boot, it was only the heel end
which he could hope to hold. Other hills all round offered cover for
Boer riflemen. Nothing daunted, however, he set his men to work at once
building sangars with the loose stones. With the full dawn and the first
snapping of Boer Mausers from the hills around they had thrown up some
sort of rude defences which they might hope to hold until help should
come.

But how could help come when there was no means by which they could let
White know the plight in which they found themselves? They had brought
a heliograph with them, but it was on the back of one of those accursed
mules. The Boers were thick around them, and they could not send a
messenger. An attempt was made to convert a polished biscuit tin into a
heliograph, but with poor success. A Kaffir was dispatched with promises
of a heavy bribe, but he passed out of history. And there in the clear
cold morning air the balloon hung to the south of them where the first
distant thunder of White's guns was begin