"Humph! Yes, of course; but it's a great pity, when the men wanted
rest."
The next minute I was facing the Colonel in the middle of the pass,
where he stood with a group of the officers, about half-way between the
two lines of men facing up and down, but lying so close that they were
only visible here and there.
"Oh, here you are, young fellow!" were the words that saluted me, spoken
in a low, angry whisper. "Now then, where are these two attacking
parties of Boers?"
"I only reported that one was coming, sir--one descending the pass."
"Very well; you shall have credit for only one, then. Well, where is
it?"
"I can't say, sir," I replied. "I was warned of it by my native
servant."
"Then just go back and flog your native servant till you have given him
a lesson against spreading false alarms to rob tired men of their rest.
It is perfectly abominable--just when we want all our strength for the
work in hand for us to-morrow."
"I'm very sorry, sir," I said.
"Sorry? What must I be, then? I can't fight unless I have plenty to
eat and as much sleep as I can get. There, get back to your post. I
wish to goodness you had stopped at home or joined the Boers, or done
something else with yourself, instead of coming and giving this
confounded false alarm. Be off.--Here, call in the men again, and--Yes,
what now?"
"Enemy coming up the pass in great strength, sir," said one of the
scouts, who had come breathlessly back.
"What!" said the Colonel in a hurried whisper. "Could you make them
out?"
"Yes, sir; two or three hundred, I should say."
"You got near enough to see?"
"I couldn't see much, sir; but I could hear. They seemed to spread
right across from the side I was on."
"Here, you, Moray," said the Colonel, turning to me, for at this
announcement I had stood fast. "Get back to your post; and I beg your
pardon.--Yes; who are you?"--for another scout came in to endorse the
words of the first. He had scouted down the other side of the widening
pass, and according to his report the enemy could not be a quarter of a
mile away.
"Thank goodness!" said the Colonel fervently. "Mr Moray, I spoke in
haste and disappointment. Now then, gentlemen, perfect silence, please.
I believe we shall hear some signal from below, and that is what the
party above are waiting for. Then they will attack simultaneously, to
give us a surprise, and we're going to surprise them. Every one to his
post, please; and then, at their first rush, let it be volleys and slow
falling back, so as to keep them from breaking our too open formation."
The next minute every man was in his place, and the pass so dark and
still that it was impossible to believe that a terrible conflict was so
close at hand. As I stood waiting and listening for the enemy's order
to attack, I could feel my heart go _throb, throb, throb, throb_, so
hard that I seemed to be hearing it at the same time making a dull echo
in my brain.
Still there was no sign; and at last I began to go over my brief
interview with the Colonel, and to wonder whether he would turn now upon
the two scouts and charge them with having deceived themselves, for
according to their report the enemy ought to have been upon us long
before. I had got to this point when all at once I felt an arm upon my
shoulder, and could just make out at the side and front of my face a big
hand pointing forward towards the stones a hundred feet away.
"Um!" whispered Joeboy, with his lips close to my ear. "See um now.
Big lots."
"I can see nothing," I whispered.
"Joeboy can. Lie down ready. Boss Val going to shoot?"
"When I get the order," I said softly, and my heart beat more heavily
than ever, for I felt now that the black must be right. I had had for
years past proofs of the wonderful power of his sight, and had not a
doubt that, though they were invisible to me, a large body of the enemy
were clustering among the stones ready for the assault upon our
position.
Then I heard from somewhere below a faint, rushing, whistling sound, as
of a firework, followed by a crack, and the white stars of a rocket lit
up the sides of the pass and made the stones in front visible in a soft
glare. The next instant from front and rear, almost simultaneously,
there were flashes and a scattered roar, while the sides of the pass
took up the reports, forming a deafening roll of thunder running down
towards the plain.
Before this was half-over there was the rush of men before us, the
stones and the spaces between seeming to be alive with running and
leaping Boers, shouting and cheering like mad as they came on, their
purpose being to scare us and frighten the horses into a stampede,
which, if it had followed, must have been equally fatal to their
comrades attacking from the rear as it would have been to us; but,
instead of the enemy being gratified by hearing the clattering of
hundreds of hoofs, they were received by a series of sharp volleys
proceeding from our two lines of men. These were so inadequately
returned that the officers in the rear ran to and fro bidding us stand
firm and keep up the fire, no attempt being made to fall back towards
the gap where the horses were tethered.
Those were tremendously exciting minutes, and in the confusion, the
crack of the rifles, and the reverberations, I hardly know what I did,
except that I kept on firing without taking aim, for the simple reason
that there was nothing visible in the smoke and darkness unless one had
tried to aim at a spot from whence flashes came; and as the men
attacking us were constantly on the move, that would have been useless.
I found afterwards, on talking to the men above me, that they had
behaved in precisely the same way as I did--they kept on firing; while
all were in constant expectation of having to club their rifles to beat
back the enemy should they come on with a rush.
However, we never came to close quarters that night; for, failing in
sweeping our men back in the first surprise, the enemy drew off a short
distance till all were well under cover, and then kept up their fire,
each party of the enemy seeming utterly regardless of the risk to their
own comrades beyond us.
In the midst of the roar and reverberation I was startled by a hand laid
upon my shoulder, and, turning sharply, I found the sergeant by my side.
"Fall back," he said; and as I obeyed I thrust my hand to my
cartridge-belt so as to reload, when, to my utter astonishment, I found
it was two-thirds empty. This was soon remedied; for, as we--that is to
say, about half the defenders of the upper side of our stronghold--stood
fast, non-commissioned officers came running along and thrust packets of
cartridges into our hands.
It was, as I have said, very dark; but I could just manage to see
beneath the canopy of smoke which rose slowly that half the lower line
of defenders had fallen back. Directly after, we were all hurried to
the front of the great niche and ordered to man the rocks there in front
of the horses.
While settling ourselves in every advantageous position we could find,
the firing went on as briskly as ever, the Boers blazing away at our two
lines of men, who replied as fast as they could load; and, as far as I
could tell by the sound, the fusillade did not slacken.
Then I began to understand what was about to happen, and could not help
laughing to myself when I saw the part of our line we had left firing
suddenly come hurrying in, to pass through an opening in our ranks; and
no sooner were they safe than the lower line fell back and came running
into the shelter, to join up with the others.
As soon as these detachments were out of the way we had orders to fire
four cartridges each, half of us firing as well up the pass as possible,
the other half to fire as far downwards as they could. After these four
rounds each we were to cease firing: this was, of course, to prevent the
Boers from noticing that our fire had slackened and then ceased; and it
answered exactly as the Colonel had intended, for the bull-headed and
obstinate enemy went on for the next half-hour firing away at the stones
where we had been, each side believing that a portion of the reports and
echoes were caused by our firing, and all the time our men stood
laughing and enjoying the blunder, and pretty sure that the enemy must
be bringing down some of their own comrades. Whether the enemy found
this out at last, or were dissatisfied at not being able to silence our
fire, I don't know; but suddenly there was another train of sparks
rushing up through the smoke, and the bursting of a rocket far on high,
sending down a dingy bluish light through the overhanging cloud. Then
the firing stopped as if by magic.
Instantly every man was on the _qui vive_, the front of the niche
bristling with rifles ready to deliver volley after volley as soon as
the rush we all expected began; but we waited in vain. When skirmishers
were sent out to feel their way cautiously in the darkness, through
which the smoke was slowly rising, we still waited and listened,
expecting to hear them fired upon; but again we waited in vain. Both
parties of the enemy had retired for the night; and, as soon as the
Colonel was satisfied of this, the necessary advance-posts were sent out
and stationed, and the men then ordered to lie down on their arms and
get what sleep they could.