"Here, what in the name of wonder!" cried Dickenson angrily. "Yah!
Keep those horns quiet, you beast."
"What is it?" cried Lennox excitedly.
"Roast-beef, sir--leastwise to-morrow, sir," cried one of the men.
"We've bay'neted a team of oxen."
"Speak the truth, lad," cried another from Lennox's left. "We've been
giving point in a gun-carriage."
"Silence in the ranks!" cried Lennox sternly as he felt about in the
darkness, joined now by his comrade, and found that their charge had
been checked by a big gun, its limber, and the span--six or eight and
twenty oxen--several of the poor beasts having received thrusts from the
men's bayonets.
It was a strange breastwork to act as a protection, but from behind its
shelter a couple of volleys were sent in the direction of the flashes of
light which indicated the whereabouts of the enemy, and this made them
continue their flight, the surprise having been too great for their
nerves; while the right interpretation was placed upon the adventure at
once--to wit, that in ignorance of the fact that Colonel Lindley had
done in the darkness exactly what might have been expected, and occupied
the kopje, the Boers had brought up a heavy gun with the intention of
mounting it before morning, and had failed.
"What's to be the next?" said Dickenson.
"Next?" cried Lennox. "You must cover us with three parts of the men
while with the rest I try to get the gun right up to the kopje."
It was no easy task, for the driver and foreloper of the team had fled
with the artillerymen and the rest of the Boers, while the pricked oxen
were disposed to be unmanageable. But British soldiers are accustomed
to struggle with difficulties of all kinds in war, and by the time the
Boers had recovered somewhat from their surprise, and, urged by their
leaders, were advancing again to try and recover the lost piece, the
team of oxen were once more working together, and the ponderous gun was
being slowly dragged onward towards the rocky eminence.
It was terribly hard work in the darkness; for the way, after about a
hundred yards or so over level veldt, began to ascend, and blocks of
granite seemed to be constantly rising from the ground to impede the
progress of the oxen.
In spite of all, though, the gun and its limber were dragged on and on,
while in the distance a line of tiny jets of fire kept on spurting out,
showing that the enemy had recovered from the panic and were coming on,
firing as they came, the bullets whizzing over the heads of our men, but
doing no harm.
"Steady! steady! and as quietly as you can," said Lennox in warning
tones, as he kept on directing and encouraging his men. "They are
firing by guesswork.--Ah! that won't do any good," he muttered, for just
as he was speaking Dickenson and his men, who had spread out widely,
began to reply; "it will only show our weakness."
He looked forward again in the direction the oxen were being driven; but
the kopje was invisible, and now he altered his opinion about the firing
of Dickenson's detachment, for he felt that it would let the captain
know what was going on, and bring up support.
He was quite right, for in a very little time Captain Roby had felt his
way to them, learnt the cause of the firing, and carefully covered the
retreat till the intricacies of the rocky ascent put a stop to further
progress in the gloom, and a halt was called till morning.
The rest of the night passed in the midst of a terrible suspense, for
though the Boer firing gradually died out, as if the leaders had at last
awakened to the fact of its being a mere waste of ammunition, the
British detachment, scattered here and there about the captured gun, lay
in momentary expectation of the enemy creeping up and then making a
rush.
"But they will not," said Lennox quietly. "They'll wait till morning,
and creep up from stone to stone and bush to bush, trying to pick us
off."
"You need not be so cock-sure about it," growled Dickenson. "They are
in force, and must have known from our fire how few we were. A rush
would do it."
"Yes; but they will not rush," replied Lennox. "They understand too
well the meaning of the word _bayonet_. Cock-sure or no, they'll make
no dash; but as soon as it begins to be light we shall have a
hailstorm."
"Nonsense!" said Dickenson tetchily; "there's no sign of rain."
"I did not say rain," replied Lennox, "but hail--leaden hail from every
bit of cover round."
"Oh, I see," said Dickenson. "Well, two sides can play at that game;
and I fancy we have most cover here."
Lennox was quite right; for as soon as the first pale grey of a lovely
dawn began to make objects stand up in an indistinct way upon the level
veldt around the kopje, the sharp cracks of rifle after rifle began at
every object that displayed movement upon the eminence, and the
pattering of bullets among the rocks often preceded the reports of the
Boer rifles.
But by this time Captain Roby had communicated with the colonel in the
village, and had taken his steps, sending his men well out in the
enemy's direction to take advantage of every scrap of cover to reply
wherever it was necessary, which they did, their efforts, as the time
went on, to some extent keeping the Boer fire down.
The colonel grasped the position at once and sent assistance, with the
result that, in spite of terrible difficulties, by help of horse and
mule to supplement the pulling powers of the ox-team, the big gun,
limber, and an ammunition-wagon, which daylight showed lying deserted a
quarter of a mile away among some bushes into which it had been dragged
in the dark, were hauled to the flat top of the kopje, where they were
surrounded with a rough but strong breastwork of the abundant stones,
and by the men's breakfast-time a shell was sent well into the midst of
a clump of bush which the Boers had made the centre of their advance.
A better shot could not have been made, for as soon as the shell had
burst, the defenders of the kopje had the satisfaction of seeing that
the greater part of the Boers' ponies had been gathered into shelter
there, and a perfect stampede had begun, hundreds of horses, mounted and
empty of saddle, streaming away in every direction except that in which
the kopje lay.
There was no need for a second shell, for the sputtering rifle-fire
ceased as if by magic, the Boers retiring, leaving the colonel's force
at liberty to go on at leisure strengthening the emplacement of the
enemy's heavy Creusot gun, and forming a magazine for the abundant
supply of ammunition, also captured for its use.
The rest of the day was occupied, by as many of the men as could be
spared, building up sangars [loose stone walls for breastworks] and
contriving rifle-pits and cover to such an extent that already it would
have taken a strong and determined force to make any impression; while,
when the officers met at the mess that night and the matter was under
discussion, the colonel smiled.
"Yes," he said, "pretty well for one day's work; but by the end of a
week we shall have a little Gibraltar that will take all the men the
Boers have in the field to capture--a regular stronghold, ready like a
castle keep if we have to leave the village."
"And may that never be, colonel," said Captain Roby.
"Hear, hear!" cried every one present.
"So I say," said the colonel; "but we may at any time be ordered to
occupy some other position. By the way, though, I should not dislike to
send the Boer leader a letter of thanks for sending us that gun and a
supply of oxen. How many must be killed?"
"Killed?" cried Captain Roby.
"Yes; several were bayoneted in that charge."
"Three only," replied the captain, "and they don't look much the worse
for it. Their flesh seems to close up again like india-rubber. The vet
says they will all heal up."
"Good," said the colonel. "Take it all together, I shall have a
pleasant despatch to send to the general. The capture of the big gun;
not a man killed, and only three wounded. How are they getting on,
doctor?"
"Capitally. Nothing serious. But, by the way--" The doctor stopped and
began to clean out his pipe.
"Yes, by the way?" said the colonel. "Nothing unpleasant to report, I
hope?"
"Um--no," drawled the doctor. "A fresh patient with a touch of fever;
but it wasn't that. I meant--that is, I wondered how you meant to send
the despatch?"
"Ha! Yes," said the colonel thoughtfully; "how? I don't feel disposed
to risk any more men, and I hear that the Kaffirs do not seem to be
tempted by the pay offered them, although I have offered double what I
gave before."
"That's bad," said the doctor. "Well, I suppose you can hold this
place?"
"Tight!" said the colonel laconically.
"So long as provisions and ammunition hold out?" said Captain Roby
tentatively.
"Yes," assented the colonel.
"And when they are ended," cried Dickenson, who had sat listening in
silence, "we can try a bit of sport. There are herds of antelopes and
flocks of guinea-fowl about, sir."
"I doubt it, Dickenson," said the colonel, smiling; "and I fancy that
the most profitable form of sport for us will be that followed out by
our mounted men."
"What's that, sir?" asked Dickenson.
"Stalking the enemy's convoys. These fellows have to be fed, hardy and
self-supporting as they are. But there, we are pretty well supplied as
yet, and the great thing is that our water-supply is never likely to
fail."
The next morning the Boers made a fresh attack for the purpose of
recapturing the gun or seizing the kopje where it was mounted. But this
advance, like several more which followed, only resulted in a severe
repulse, and at last their attacks formed part of a long blockade in
which they hoped to succeed by starving the little British force into
subjection.