hem
again.

The sun was well up, but I had not yet heard a gun go off. Presently
there was a report, and the sand rose in a column before the kopjes.
This was a 4.7 naval gun finding its range with common shell. Again the
invisible gun behind me boomed, again the weird, prolonged whirtling
overhead; the long wait--perhaps for fifteen seconds; then a cloud of
hideous vapour right on the kopje; then the report of the exploding
shell. This happened perhaps half a dozen times; the well-aimed shells
dropped now behind, now on the hills; there was no reply; and in half an
hour the mounted infantry were riding over the kopjes. The enemy had
simply broken and fled towards their central position.

From the north side, where the Ninth and Seventh Divisions were, one
could hear the same sounds, but no rifle fire. After our guns had
cleared the seven kopjes a kind of Sabbath stillness fell upon the land.

Lying in the grass, listening to the droning flies, I tried to tell
myself that I was watching a momentous battle; that matters of life and
death were on hand: but the wind laughed through the grasses at the very
notion, and the timid steinbuck leaped up quite close to me, as if to
say, "Who's afraid?"

Behind me a brigade was winding to the south with a movement almost
lyrical; but no man seemed to be doing anything that could be called
fighting. I decided that nothing more was to be seen on the south, and
started to cross northward between the positions. My path was in what
ought to have been the hottest zone of fire; but the hares leapt in the
sun and the grasshoppers hummed with delight. While crossing northward I
met the advance scouts of a regiment of mounted infantry advancing
where, according to all ordinary laws, no mounted infantry could or
ought to have been--advancing directly on the central Boer position.

"Come along," said the Colonel; "I believe the whole position is empty;
we're going to scale those ridges."

Now these very ridges were the ones to which I had seen the Boers
retreat, about a thousand of them, half an hour ago, and I told the
Colonel so. "But they must have gone," he said, "or else they would be
firing at us now."

It was perfectly true. The whole company was halted, while we chatted,
within easy fire of the enemy's position; a few pom-poms would have made
a shocking mess amongst the men and horses. But the hills were clothed
with silence as with a garment.

"Anyhow, I'm going to see," sai