nloaded rifles and fixed bayonets
stole on once more, their bodies bent, their eyes peering through the
mirk for the first sign of the enemy--that enemy whose first sign has
usually been a shattering volley. Thorneycroft's men with their gallant
leader had threaded their way up into the advance. Then the leading
files found that they were walking on the level. The crest had been
gained.

With slow steps and bated breath, the open line of skirmishers stole
across it. Was it possible that it had been entirely abandoned? Suddenly
a raucous shout of 'Wie da?' came out of the darkness, then a shot, then
a splutter of musketry and a yell, as the Fusiliers sprang onwards
with their bayonets. The Boer post of Vryheid burghers clattered and
scrambled away into the darkness, and a cheer that roused both the
sleeping armies told that the surprise had been complete and the
position won.

In the grey light of the breaking day the men advanced along the narrow
undulating ridge, the prominent end of which they had captured. Another
trench faced them, but it was weakly held and abandoned. Then the men,
uncertain what remained beyond, halted and waited for full light to see
where they were, and what the work was which lay before them--a fatal
halt, as the result proved, and yet one so natural that it is hard to
blame the officer who ordered it. Indeed, he might have seemed more
culpable had he pushed blindly on, and so lost the advantage which had
been already gained.

About eight o'clock, with the clearing of the mist, General Woodgate saw
how matters stood. The ridge, one end of which he held, extended away,
rising and falling for some miles. Had he the whole of the end plateau,
and had he guns, he might hope to command the rest of the position. But
he held only half the plateau, and at the further end of it the Boers
were strongly entrenched. The Spion Kop mountain was really the salient
or sharp angle of the Boer position, so that the British were exposed to
a cross fire both from the left and right. Beyond were other eminences
which sheltered strings of riflemen and several guns. The plateau which
the British held was very much narrower than was usually represented in
the press. In many places the possible front was not much more than a
hundred yards wide, and the troops were compelled to bunch together, as
there was not room for a single company to take an extended formation.
The cover upon this plateau was scanty, far too scan