would have
shown up sharply, and Boer sentries always keep well down where they can
watch the sky-line. Our troops, naturally anxious not to discover
themselves prematurely, lay down in a convenient donga and waited for
darkness. There they had to lie an hour or longer, until the nearest
ridges were again merged in the gloom of their surroundings, and the
more distant hills became vague shadows, perceptible only to the second
sight of men who are familiar with Nature in all aspects. Then the
column, moving silently, advanced towards the railway line, which few
could see until they were stopped by the barbed wire that fences it on
each side. The necessity for cutting this was another awkward hindrance.
All officers, however, had come provided for such an emergency with
wire-nippers. The anxiety was painfully tense as men listened to the
sharp click of these instruments, and heard the severed wires drop with
a clatter that struck harp-like across the deep silence, and went
vibrating along the fence towards a Boer camp where perhaps some sentry,
more alert than his comrades, might catch the meaning of such sounds. No
alarm followed, however, as the work of wire-cutting went on across the
railway and from enclosure to enclosure, care being taken to bend the
wires only in one place so that they could be bent back, leaving a space
just wide enough for successive companies in fours to defile through.

Thus by slow degrees they gained the foot of Surprise Hill, and began
the difficult ascent. Colonel Metcalfe, and probably most of his men,
expected that they would have been met by Boer rifle fire long before
this and compelled to win their way with the bayonet. It seemed almost
impossible to believe that the Boers, after one sharp lesson, would keep
no better watch than to let us creep up to their stronghold unopposed.
Suddenly a challenge "Wie kom dar?" rang out from half-way up the hill.
Silence would serve no longer, and indeed it had been broken again and
again by the clang of iron-heeled boots on loose stones. So the order to
fix swords was given, and passed in stentorian tones along the front.
Sword-bayonets rattled sharply against rifle barrels to show that there
was no deception this time, and then with lusty cheers the assaulting
companies sprang forward, floundering at times in deep clefts between
boulders, then re-forming to continue their advance, while the supports
and reserves fell as quickly as they could into the