time
hadn't come--and the infantry working away all the while. I'm not going
to run down the cavalry; they're splendid in war when they can get their
chance to come to close quarters. You see, we haven't done much with
our swords, for the Doppies won't stand a charge. Where we've had them
has been dismounted, as riflemen, and that's what our trouble is now.
We can't get at the enemy; what we want is a regiment of foot with the
bayonet. Just a steady advance under such cover as they could find, and
then a sharp run in with a good old British cheer, and the Doppies would
begin to run. Then we ought to be loosed at them, and every blessed
Boer among them would make up his mind that it was quite time he went
home to see how his crops are getting on."

"Yes, Sergeant," said Denham gravely; "that's exactly the way to do it,
and that's what people at home are saying. But we're shut up here,
ammunition is failing, and we have no regiment of foot to give the
brutes the cold steel and make them run; so what's the best thing to do
under the circumstances?"

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

THE SERGEANT'S NOTION.

"Ah!" said the Sergeant, tapping the ashes out of his pipe and refilling
it; "that's a bit of a puzzle, sir."

"Hang out the white flag?" cried Denham bitterly.

"No, sir," cried the Sergeant fiercely.

"What then?" I said.

"What then, sir?" said Briggs fiercely. "We've got plenty of pluck and
lots of fight in the boys."

"Yes," said Denham, with his eyes flashing. "Plenty of prime beef and
good fresh water, Briggs; but scarcely any cartridges."

"That's right, sir; and so I took the liberty, when I got a chance, of
saying a word to the Colonel."

"What about?"

"The Doppies' ammunition-wagons, sir."

"Ah!" cried Denham, rising to his elbow. "I ventured to say, sir, that
the young officer as brought in our supply of provisions would have laid
himself flat down on the top o' the wall and watched with his glass till
he had made out where the best spot was, and then after dark he'd have
gone out and made a try to capture one of the ammunition-wagons, and
brought it in."

"Impossible, Sergeant," said Denham.

"Bah! That word isn't in a soldier's dictionary, sir. You'd have done
it if you'd been well enough."

"But the cartridges mightn't fit our rifles, Sergeant."

"Mightn't, sir; but they might. Then, if the first lot didn't, you'd
have gone again and again till you had got the right sort. If