sh, and had built himself a little wall of rocks in
front. Shell after shell was showered upon that rocky hillside, for it
concealed many other sharpshooters besides. But at each flash he must
have thrown himself behind the stones, and when the shower of lead was
over up he got, and again I saw the little puff of grey smoke and heard
the growl of a bullet close by.

The firing ceased about three. There was no apparent reason why it
should. The Boers had killed a few of us. Probably we had killed more of
them. But mere loss of life does not make victory or defeat, and to all
appearance we were both on much the same ground as at first, except that
the Boers had lost a gun, and were not at all comfortable on the
positions they had held. Our withdrawal, however, was due to deeper
reasons. A messenger had brought news of the column which had unhappily
been driven from Dundee--whether by the Boers' 40-pounder, "Long Tom,"
or by failing ammunition I will not try to decide. Anyhow, the messenger
brought the news that the column was safe and returning unmolested on
Ladysmith by the roundabout road eastward, near Helpmakaar. We had held
back the enemy from intercepting them on their march. Our long and
harassing fight, then, had been worth the sacrifice. It was a victory in
strategy. Sir George White gave the order for the infantry to withdraw
from the ridge by battalions and return to Ladysmith. By evening we were
all in the town again.

Next day I determined to meet the Dundee force on its way. They were
reported to have halted about twenty-five miles off the night before,
near Sunday's river, which, like all the rivers and spruits just here,
runs southward through mountains into the Tugela and Buffalo. About six
miles out we had a small force ready to give them assistance if they
were pursued. Passing through that column halted by a stream, I went on
into more open country, where there was an occasional farm with the
invariable tin roof and weeping willows of South Africa. For many miles
I saw small parties of our Lancers and Carbineers scouring the country
on both sides of the track.

Then soon after I had crossed a wide watershed I came down into broken
and rocky country again, well suited for Boers, and there the outposts
ended. I had a wide view of distant mountains, far away to the Zulu
border on the east, and northwards to the Biggarsberg and Dundee, a
terrible country to cross with a retiring column, harassed by three