A huddled mass of fugitives--men, women, children, horses,
cattle--crowded together in the dry bed of a river, seeking shelter
amongst rocks and boulders and under shelving banks, subjected
continually to a hurricane of shot and shell, choked by the fumes of the
exploding Lyddite, poisoned by the stench of blood, saturated all
through with the indescribable odour of death. Somewhere in its midst,
caged like a rat, but still sulkily defiant, the peasant general
fingered his switch as he looked this way and that and saw no further
chance of escape. In the distance, calmly waiting the inevitable end,
the little man with the weather-beaten face and the grey moustaches
listened to the never-ceasing roar of his cannon demanding insistently
the word of surrender that must needs come.
Saxonstowe, lying on a waterproof sheet on the floor of his tent, was
writing on a board propped up in front of him. All that he wrote was by
way of expressing his wonder, over and over again, that Cronje should
hold out so long against the hell of fire which was playing in and
around his last refuge. He was trying to realise what must be going on
in the river bed, and the thought made him sick. Near him, writing on an
upturned box, was another special correspondent who shared the tent with
him; outside, polishing tin pannikins because he had nothing else to do,
was a Cockney lad whom these two had picked up in Ladysmith and had
attached as body-servant. He was always willing and always cheerful, and
had a trick of singing snatches of popular songs in a desultory and
disconnected way. His raucous voice came to them under the booming of
the guns.
/p
‘Ow, ’ee’s little but ’ee’s wise,
’Ee’s a terror for ’is size,
An’ ’ee does not hadvertise:
Do yer, Bobs?’
p/
‘What a voice that chap has!’ said Saxonstowe’s companion. ‘It’s like a
wheel that hasn’t been oiled for months!’
/p
‘Will yer kindly put a penny in my little tambourine,
For a gentleman in khaki ordered sou-outh?’
p/
chanted the polisher of tin pans.
‘They have a saying in Yorkshire,’ remarked Saxonstowe, ‘to the effect
that it’s a poor heart that never rejoices.’
‘This chap must have a good ’un, then,’ said the other. Give us a
pipeful of tobacco, will you, Saxonstowe? Lord! will those guns never
stop?’
/p
‘For the colonel’s lady and Judy O’Grady,
Are sisters hunder their skins,’
p/
sang the henchman.
‘Will our vocalist never stop?’ said Saxonstowe, handing over his pouch.
‘He seems as unconcerned as if he were on a Bank Holiday.’
/p
‘We wos as ’appy as could be, that dye,
Dahn at the Welsh ’Arp, which is ’Endon--’
p/
The raucous voice broke off suddenly; the close-cropped Cockney head
showed at the open flap of the tent.
‘Beg pardon, sir,’ said the Cockney voice, ‘but I fink there’s somethin’
’appened, sir--guns is dyin’ orf, sir.’
Saxonstowe and his fellow scribe sprang to their feet. The roar of the
cannon was dying gradually away, and it suddenly gave place to a strange
and an awful silence.
Saxonstowe walked hither and thither about the bed of the river, turning
his head jerkily to right and left.
‘It’s a shambles!--a shambles!--a shambles!’ he kept repeating. He shook
his head and then his body as if he wanted to shake off the impression
that was fast stamping itself ineffaceably upon him. ‘A shambles!’ he
said again.
He pulled himself together and looked around him. It seemed to him that
earth and sky were blotted out in blood and fire, and that the smell of
death had wrapped him so closely that he would never breathe freely
again. Dead and dying men were everywhere. Near him rose a pile of what
appeared to be freshly slaughtered meat--it was merely the result of the
bursting of a Lyddite shell amongst a span of oxen. Near him, too, stood
a girl, young, not uncomely, with a bullet-wound showing in her white
bosom from which she had just torn the bodice away; at his feet, amongst
the boulders, were twisted, strange, grotesque shapes that had once been
human bodies.
‘There’s a chap here that looks like an Englishman,’ said a voice behind
him.
Saxonstowe turned, and found the man who shared his tent standing at his
elbow, and pointed to a body stretched out a yard or two away--the body
of a well-formed man who had fallen on his side, shot through the heart.
He lay as if asleep, his face half hidden in his arm-pit; near him,
within reach of the nerveless fingers that had torn out a divot of turf
in his last moment’s spasmodic feeling for something to clutch at, lay
his rifle: round his rough serge jacket was clasped a bandolier well
stored with cartridges. His broad-brimmed hat had fallen off, and half
his face, very white and statuesque in death, caught the sunlight that
straggled fitfully through the smoke-clouds which still curled over the
bed of the river.
‘Looks like an Englishman,’ repeated the special correspondent. ‘Look at
his hands, too--he hasn’t handled a rifle very long, I’m thinking.’
Saxonstowe glanced at the body with perfunctory interest--there were so
many dead men lying all about him. Something in the dead man’s face woke
a chord in his memory: he went nearer and bent over him. His brain was
sick and dizzy with the horrors of the blood and the stink of the
slaughter. He stood up again, and winked his eyes rapidly.
‘No, no!’ he heard himself saying. ‘No! It can’t be--of course it can’t
be. What should Lucian be doing here? Of course it’s not he--it’s mere
imagination--mere im-ag-in-a-tion!’
‘Here, hold up, old chap!’ said his companion, pulling out a flask.
‘Take a nip of that. Better? Hallo--what’s going on there?’
He stepped on a boulder and gazed in the direction of a wagon round
which some commotion was evident. Saxonstowe, without another glance at
the dead man, stepped up beside him.
He saw a roughly built, rugged-faced man, wrapped in a much-worn
overcoat that had grown green with age, stepping out across the plain,
swishing at the herbage with a switch which jerked nervously in his
hand. At his side strode a muscular-looking woman, hard of feature,
brown of skin--a peasant wife in a faded skirt and a crumpled
sun-bonnet. Near them marched a tall British officer in khaki; other
Boers and British, a group of curious contrasts, hedged them round.
‘That’s Cronje,’ said the special correspondent, as he stepped down from
the boulder. ‘Well, it’s over, thank God!’
The conquered was on his way to the conqueror.
LONDON AND GLASGOW: COLLINS’ CLEAR-TYPE PRESS.
* * * * *
COLLINS’ POPULAR NOVELS
BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
FULL CLOTH 3/6 LIBRARY BINDING
_Complete List of Titles_
/*
4. These Charming People.....MICHAEL ARLEN</small>
5. Piracy.....MICHAEL ARLEN
6. The Romantic Lady.....MICHAEL ARLEN
30. The Green Hat.....MICHAEL ARLEN
70. May Fair.....MICHAEL ARLEN
139. Claire and Circumstances.....E. MARIA ALBANESI
176. The Moon Thro’ Glass.....E. MARIA ALBANESI
85. The Splendour of Asia.....L. ADAMS BECK
27. The Treasure of Ho.....L. ADAMS BECK
37. The Way of Stars.....L. ADAMS BECK
117. The Decoy.....J. D. BERESFORD
86. The Tapestry.....J. D. BERESFORD
87. Unity.....J. D. BERESFORD
88. Love’s Pilgrim.....J. D. BERESFORD
24. The Monkey Puzzle.....J. D. BERESFORD
39. That Kind of Man.....J. D. BERESFORD
138. All or Nothing.....J. D. BERESFORD
118. Wild Grapes.....PHYLLIS BOTTOME
89. The Belated Reckoning.....PHYLLIS BOTTOME
36. Old Wine.....PHYLLIS BOTTOME
69. The Kingfisher.....PHYLLIS BOTTOME
150. Strange Fruit.....PHYLLIS BOTTOME
64. Experience.....CATHERINE COTTON
96. A Gay Lover.....RUTHERFORD CROCKETT
97. Safety Last.....RUTHERFORD CROCKETT
1. The Return.....WALTER DE LA MARE
3. Memoirs of a Midget.....WALTER DE LA MARE
135. Brighton Beach.....MRS. HENRY DUDENEY
162. Fair Lady.....MAY EDGINTON
167. Life Isn’t so Bad.....MAY EDGINTON
14. The Foolish Lovers.....ST. JOHN ERVINE
129. The Wayward Man.....ST. JOHN ERVINE
166. Martin Pippin.....ELEANOR FARJEON
170. Kaleidoscope.....ELEANOR FARJEON
*/
* * * * *
COLLINS’ POPULAR NOVELS
_Complete List of 3/6 Titles--continued_
/*
120. Deep Currents.....A. FIELDING
173. Lucian the Dreamer.....J. S. FLETCHER
33. The Crater.....ROBERT GORE-BROWNE
172. An Imperfect Lover.....ROBERT GORE-BROWNE
67. My Lady of the Chimney Corner.....DR. ALEXANDER IRVINE
68. The Souls of Poor Folk.....DR. ALEXANDER IRVINE
98. Told by an Idiot.....ROSE MACAULAY
99. Mystery at Geneva.....ROSE MACAULAY
100. Potterism.....ROSE MACAULAY
8. Dangerous Ages.....ROSE MACAULAY
7. Orphan Island.....ROSE MACAULAY
52. Crewe Train.....ROSE MACAULAY
149. Keeping Up Appearances.....ROSE MACAULAY
134. Patrol.....PHILIP MACDONALD
121. Soldier Born.....CONAL O’RIORDAN
11. Adam of Dublin.....CONAL O’RIORDAN
12. Adam and Caroline.....CONAL O’RIORDAN
35. In London.....CONAL O’RIORDAN
43. Married Life.....CONAL O’RIORDAN
153. Soldier of Waterloo.....CONAL O’RIORDAN
9. Sayonara.....JOHN PARIS
10. Kimono.....JOHN PARIS
33. Banzai.....JOHN PARIS
163. A Man Beguiled.....RALPH RODD
122. The Bride’s Prelude.....MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICK
103. London Mixture.....MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICK
104. Humming Bird.....MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICK
53. Sack and Sugar.....MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICK
63. None-Go-By.....MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICK
161. Come-by-Chance.....MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICK
95. Haroun of London.....KATHARINE TYNAN
145. The Respectable.....Lady KATHARINE TYNAN
171. Lover of Women.....KATHARINE TYNAN
119. Greenlow.....ROMER WILSON
42. The Death of Society.....ROMER WILSON
130. Irene in the Centre.....HANNAH YATES
158. Dim Star.....HANNAH YATES
*/
* * * * *
COLLINS’ POPULAR NOVELS
BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
FULL CLOTH 3/6 LIBRARY BINDING
_Detective Novels_
/*
155. The Instrument of Destiny.....J. D. BERESFORD
147. The Silk Stocking Murders.....A. BERKELEY
143. The Slip Carriage Mystery.....LYNN BROCK
108. The Big Four.....AGATHA CHRISTIE
40. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.....AGATHA CHRISTIE
137. The Mystery of the Blue Train.....AGATHA CHRISTIE
148. The Man from the River.....G. D. H. AND M. COLE
174. Superintendent Wilson’s Holiday.....G. D. H. AND M. COLE
105. Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy.....FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS
44. Inspector French and the Cheyne Mystery.....FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS
51. The Groote Park Murder.....FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS
133. The Dalehouse Murder.....FRANCIS EVERTON
142. The Net Around Joan Ingilby.....A. FIELDING
19. The Diamonds.....J. S. FLETCHER
144. The Golden Venture.....J. S. FLETCHER
141. The Time-Worn Town.....A. FIELDING
152. The Ravenswood Mystery.....J. S. FLETCHER
132. Queen of Clubs.....HULBERT FOOTNER
127. The Murder of an M.P......ROBERT GORE-BROWNE
156. The Murder of Mrs. Davenport.....ANTHONY GILBERT
128. The Tragedy at Freyne.....ANTHONY GILBERT
164. The White Crow.....PHILIP MACDONALD
177. The Rasp.....PHILIP MACDONALD
168. Without Judge or Jury.....RALPH RODD
*/
* * * * *
COLLINS’ POPULAR NOVELS
BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
FULL CLOTH 3/6 LIBRARY BINDING
_Wild West Novels_
/*
123. The Desert Girl.....ROBERT AMES BENNET
124. The Two-Gun Girl.....ROBERT AMES BENNET
136. The Cow Country Killers.....ROBERT AMES BENNET
151. Ken of the Cow Country.....ROBERT AMES BENNET
165. Deep Canyon.....ROBERT AMES BENNET
178. The Mystery of the Four Abreast.....COURTNEY RYLEY COOPER
154. Bird of Freedom.....HUGH PENDEXTER
140. The Boss of the Double E.....FRANK C. ROBERTSON
157. The Boss of the Ten Mile Basin.....FRANK C. ROBERTSON
146. The Boss of the Flying M.....FRANK C. ROBERTSON
175. The Hidden Cabin.....FRANK C. ROBERTSON
179. The Far Horizon.....FRANK C. ROBERTSON
131. The Corral Riders.....CHARLES WESLEY SANDERS
169. The Crimson Trail.....CHARLES WESLEY SANDERS
126. Hashknife of the Canyon Trail.....W. C. TUTTLE
111. Hashknife of the Double Bar 8.....W. C. TUTTLE
112. Hashknife Lends a Hand.....W. C. TUTTLE
82. Sun-Dog Loot.....W. C. TUTTLE
83. Rustlers’ Roost.....W. C. TUTTLE
84. The Dead-Line.....W. C. TUTTLE
*/
* * * * *
COLLINS’ POPULAR NOVELS
BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
2/6
_Complete List of Titles_
/*
129. Ghost Stones.....MICHAEL ARLEN
133. The White in the Black.....E. MARIA ALBANESI
61. Roseanne.....E. MARIA ALBANESI
116. Sally in Her Alley.....E. MARIA ALBANESI
160. Seed Pods.....MRS. HENRY DUDENEY
131. Quince Alley.....MRS. HENRY DUDENEY
132. Beanstalk.....MRS. HENRY DUDENEY
103. The Finger Post.....MRS. HENRY DUDENEY
169. Trilby.....GEORGE DU MAURIER
134. The Allbright Family.....ARCHIBALD MARSHALL
56. Big Peter.....ARCHIBALD MARSHALL
74. Pippin.....ARCHIBALD MARSHALL
99. The Graftons.....ARCHIBALD MARSHALL
110. Anthony Dare.....ARCHIBALD MARSHALL
127. The Education of Anthony Dare.....ARCHIBALD MARSHALL
159. That Island.....ARCHIBALD MARSHALL
163. Woman’s Way.....RALPH RODD
166. The Whipping Girl.....RALPH RODD
137. Treasure Island.....ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
138. The Black Arrow.....ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
139. Catriona.....ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
140. Kidnapped.....ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
141. The Master of Ballantrae.....ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
142. The Dynamiter.....ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
157. Prince Otto.....ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
165. New Arabian Nights.....ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
168. Island Nights’ Entertainments.....ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
135. Men Like Gods.....H. G. WELLS
*/
* * * * *
COLLINS’ POPULAR NOVELS
BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
2/6
_Complete List of Titles--continued_
/*
136. God, the Invisible King.....H. G. WELLS
16. The Passionate Friends.....H. G. WELLS
18. Tales of the Unexpected.....H. G. WELLS
21. The Research Magnificent.....H. G. WELLS
27. The First Men in the Moon.....H. G. WELLS
33. Tales of Life and Adventure.....H. G. WELLS
38. Marriage.....H. G. WELLS
43. In the Days of the Comet.....H. G. WELLS
51. Tales of Wonder.....H. G. WELLS
59. The Food of the Gods.....H. G. WELLS
68. Tono-Bungay.....H. G. WELLS
72. The History of Mr. Polly.....H. G. WELLS
75. Kipps.....H. G. WELLS
79. Love and Mr. Lewisham.....H. G. WELLS
89. The War in the Air.....H. G. WELLS
92. The World Set Free.....H. G. WELLS
106. A Modern Utopia.....H. G. WELLS
109. The Sleeper Awakes.....H. G. WELLS
111. The Invisible Man.....H. G. WELLS
118. The New Machiavelli.....H. G. WELLS
122. The Secret Places of the Heart.....H. G. WELLS
153. Mr Britling.....H. G. WELLS
156. The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman.....H. G. WELLS
154. More Salty.....CHARLES WESTRON
112. Cold Harbour.....FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG
130. The Black Diamond.....FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG
25. The Young Physician.....FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG
81. Pilgrim’s Rest.....FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG
91. Woodsmoke.....FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG
123. The Dark Tower.....FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG
105. The Crescent Moor.....FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG
*/