All has to be done by calculation of angles, and a fraction of
error may make all the difference. So we watch anxiously while the
shell--a long time in flight--follows its allotted parabola. One bursts
just short of the work; but its companion, a second later, goes over the
parapet and sends debris flying upwards in a mighty cloud. Thereupon the
howitzers are christened promptly "The Great Twin Brethren," "Castor and
Pollux," and "Puffing Pals," everybody selecting the name that appeals
to his imagination most strongly. It matters little by what name men
call them, so long as they can throw shells truly into the enemy's
battery, and this they do steadily. The "Meddler" cannot reply to them
effectively, and other Boer guns try in vain to reach them. At night a
curious palpitating light on the clouds southward attracts attention.
One Rifle Brigade man who has a smattering of the Morse Code watches it
for some time and mutters to himself, "X.X.X. Why, they're calling us
up"; and before a signalman can be roused we see clearly enough these
palpitations resolving themselves into dots and dashes. It is a signal
from the south, flashed by searchlight across miles of intervening
hills, but in a cypher which only those who have the key can read.

[Illustration: THE BRITISH POSITION AT LADYSMITH, LOOKING NORTH TOWARDS
RIETFONTEIN AND THE NEWCASTLE ROAD]

_November 30._--Day breaks across white mists on the plain, and then
comes gorgeous sunshine, with a glow of colour all round, brilliant
orange in the east above Bulwaan, deepening to blood-red in the west
behind the rugged crest of Mount Tintwa and the pitted peaks of Mont aux
Sources. From daybreak onward there is heavy artillery fire on camp and
town from every gun the Boers have mounted. Our howitzers and the
"Meddler" began it with a merry little set-to between themselves, doing
no harm. Then Surprise Hill, Telegraph Hill, Rifleman's Ridge, Bulwaan,
and Lombard's Kop joined in, the last aiming straight for the hospital,
with its Red Cross flag. Two shells had fallen close to that building,
from which all haste was made to remove the helpless patients. Most of
them had been got out when the third shot came crashing into the largest
ward, and from among the ruins one dead man and nine freshly wounded
were taken. Rifle fire quickened then about Observation Hill, and
bullets flying overhead made many think that the Boers were coming on,
but it all died away into silence without