to cut the small band of
Australians off or shoot them down. But the Australians knew their game;
they opened out, so that each man was practically riding alone.

The Boers could do little with them. Those who stood by the guns noticed
that very large numbers of men in the Boer ranks were either niggers or
half-castes, and it was also very noticeable that they knew but little
about the use of the rifle. They fired high and wide, and notwithstanding
the fact that they poured their ammunition away in wholesale fashion, they
did little harm worth mentioning, although many of them fired at little
more than pistol range. They were simply crazed with excitement, and did
not succeed in cutting off a single member of that adventurous band.
Whenever an Australian found himself in a tight place he simply dug his
spurs into his horse's flanks, lifted his rifle, and blazed into the ranks
of the foe. If his horse was shot dead under him he coo-eed to his mates,
and kept his rifle busy, and every time the coo-ee rang out over the
whispering veldt the Australians turned in their saddles, and riding as the
men from the South-land can ride, they dashed to the rescue, and did not
leave a single man in the hands of the enemy. Many a gallant deed was done
that day by officers and men. Captain Moor gave one fellow his horse, and
made a dash for liberty on foot, but he would have failed in his effort had
not Lieutenant Darling, a West Australian boy, ridden to his aid, and
together the two officers on the one horse got back to the shelter of the
guns. The enemy still blazed away in the wildest and most farcical fashion.
Had they been Boer hunters or marksmen very few of the West Australians
would ever have got across that strip of veldt alive. As it was, only two
of them got wounded, none were killed, one or two horses were shot dead,
and then the big guns got to work in grim earnest.

A party of Boers, however, got round one of the kopjes, where some of the
Lancers were posted, and now half a dozen of those brave fellows are
missing, and I fear they are to be counted amongst those who will never
return again. Sergeant Watson, of the R.H., was killed, and several of his
men and a few of the Lancers were wounded, but the R.H. guns soon swept the
plain clear of the enemy, and they retired, carrying their dead and wounded
with them. The work for the day was done, and well done, for the enemy had
shown his hand. We knew his position and his stre