e sun had
dried the dew from their clothes the men were marching with a freer
step.

This will show you how suddenly things may come upon the unwary in that
country. I had been riding with the scouts, two miles in advance of the
column, and we had just been examining through glasses a moving group in
the distance. It turned out to be nothing but cattle feeding--the only
moving things in a plain that seemed absolutely level, and I rode back
and rejoined the column. The Brigadier was just saying that he was
afraid we should see nothing to-day, when an orderly galloped up with a
note from Lord Chesham (who was out with the scouts on our left flank)
to say that the Boers were holding a kopje three miles on our left front
in strength.

Then began the excitement. Everyone was wide awake in a moment and
curious to see how the new Brigadier would manage his first job. The
convoy was halted, and the troops drawn on under cover of a slight and
almost imperceptible rise in the ground. Riding on in advance I suddenly
came on the scouts in action, that is to say, their horses were picketed
in rear of them, and they were lying hidden in the long grasses. And
there you have a typical picture of this kind of warfare. A row of men
lying on the ground, for no apparent reason, chewing the long stalks and
talking quietly to each other; in front a flat and seemingly vacant
ground; profound silence reigning everywhere. But use your glasses, and
you will see what looks like a shadow, but is really a rise on the
ground, giving advantage enough for the extermination of an army; show
your head, and you will hear the bang and whirr of the Mauser.

Presently the jingle of harness sounded behind me, and the guns went by
to take up a position on the left. I followed behind them in shelter of
the ridge, and therefore out of sight of the position. When I saw it
again I found that we were facing three long low mounds, running north
and south across our path, and the attack was now being developed. The
infantry, so dense a mass when marching, were now strung out in long
lines sweeping towards the left, and Lord Chesham with two squadrons had
also gone far to the left, to try to get round the position. Meanwhile
the guns were unlimbered, and their anxious crew (the battery had never
been in action before) were on tenter-hooks.

Up rides a staff officer. "Shell that ridge on the left."

"Right, sir. Sight for 1,800. Fuse six--no, six and a half," say