The men of the corps were in high glee during the following days, the
Boers making two or three attempts to cut off our grazing horses and
oxen, but smarting terribly for being so venturesome. In each case they
were sent to the right-about, while our cattle were driven back into
safety without the loss of a man.
The enemy still surrounded us, occupying precisely the same lines; and,
thoroughly dissatisfied with a style of fighting which meant taking them
into the open to attack our stronghold, they laagered and strengthened
their position, waiting for us to attack them. This could only be done
at the risk of terrible loss and disaster, for the Boers were so
numerous that any attempt to cut through them might only result in our
small force being surrounded and overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers.
Therefore our Colonel decided not to make an attack.
"The Colonel says they're ten to one, Val; and as we've plenty of water
and provisions, he will leave all `acting on the aggressive' to the
Doppies."
This remark was made by my companion Denham when we had been in
possession of the old fortress for nearly a fortnight.
At first, while still suffering a little from the injuries I had
received, the confinement was depressing; but as I gradually recovered
from my wrenches and bruises, and as there was so much to do, and we
were so often called upon to be ready for the enemy, the days and nights
passed not unpleasantly. Discipline was strictly enforced, and
everything was carried out in the most orderly way. Horses and cattle
were watered and sent out to graze in charge of escorts, and a troop was
drawn up beyond the walls, ready to dash out should the Boers attempt to
cut them off; guard was regularly mounted; and the men were set to build
stone walls and roofs in parts of the old place, to give protection from
the cold nights and the rain that might fall at any time.
As for the men, they were as jolly as the proverbial sandboys; and at
night the walls echoed with song and chorus. Then games were contrived,
some played by the light of the fires and others outside the walls.
Bats, balls, and stumps were made for cricket; of course very roughly
fashioned, but they afforded as much amusement as if they had come
straight from one of the best English makers.
There was, however, a monotony about our food-supply, and the officers
more than once banteringly asked me when I was going to cut out another
half-dozen wagons.
"Bring more variety next time," they said merrily. "Pick out one loaded
with tea, coffee, sugar, and butter."
"Yes," cried Denham, laughing; "and when you are about it, bring us some
pots and kettles and potatoes. We can eat the big ones; and, as we seem
to be settled here for the rest of our days, we're going to start a
garden and plant the little 'taters in that."
"To be sure," said another officer; "and I say, young fellow, mind and
choose one of the next teams with some milch-cows in it. I feel as if I
should like to milk."
I laughed too, but I felt as if I should not much like to undertake such
another expedition as the last, and that it would be pleasanter to
remain content with the roast beef and very decent bread our men
contrived to make in the old furnace after it had been a bit modified,
or with the "cookies" that were readily made on an iron plate over a
fire of glowing embers. Oh no! I don't mean damper, that stodgy cake
of flour and water fried in a pan; they were the very eatable cakes one
of our corporals turned out by mixing plenty of good beef-dripping with
the flour, and kneading all up together. They were excellent--or, as
Denham said, would have been if we had possessed some salt.
One of our greatest difficulties was the want of fuel, for it was scarce
around the old stronghold when we had cut down all the trees and bushes
growing out of the ledges and cracks about the kopje; and the question
had been mooted whether we should not be obliged to blast out some of
the roots wedged in amongst the stones by ramming in cartridges. But
while there was any possibility of making adventurous raids in all
directions where patches of trees existed, and the men could gallop out,
halt, and each man, armed with sword and a piece of rein, cut his
faggot, bind it up, and gallop back, gunpowder was too valuable to be
used for blasting roots. This was now, however, becoming a terribly
difficult problem, for the enemy--eagerly seizing upon the chance to
make reprisals when these were attended by no great risk to themselves--
had more than once chased and nearly captured our foraging parties.
Consequently all thoughts of fires for warmth during the cold nights,
when they would have been most welcome, were abandoned; while the men
eagerly volunteered for cooks' assistants; and the officers were not
above gathering in the old furnace-place of a night, after the cooking
was over, for the benefit of the warmth still emitted by the impromptu
oven.
Meanwhile every economy possible was practised, and the fuel store
jealously guarded. The said fuel store consisted of every bone of the
slaughtered animals that could be saved, and even the hides; these,
though malodorous, giving out a fine heat when helped by the green
faggots, which were in turn started ablaze by chips of the gradually
broken-up wagons.
Then, too, the veldt was laid under contribution, men going out mounted,
and furnished with sacks, which they generally brought back full of the
scattered bones of game which had at one time swarmed in the
neighbourhood, but had been ruthlessly slaughtered by the Boers.
So the days glided on, with not the slightest prospect, apparently, of
our escape.
"Every one's getting precious impatient, Val," said Denham one day when
we were idling up on the walls with his field-glass, after lying
listlessly chatting about the old place and wondering what sort of
people they were who built it, and whether they did originally come
gold-hunting from Tyre and Sidon. "Yes," he added, "we are impatient in
the extreme."
"It doesn't seem like it," I replied; "the men are contented enough."
"Pooh! They're nobody. I mean the officers. The chief's leg's pretty
nearly right again, and he was saying at mess only yesterday that it was
a most unnatural state of affairs for British officers to be forced by a
set of low-bred Dutch Boers, no better than farm-labourers, to eat their
beef without either mustard, horse-radish, or salt."
"Horrible state of destitution," I said quietly.
"None of your sneers, Farmer Val," he cried. "He's right, and I'm
getting sick of it myself. He says it is such an ignoble position for a
mounted corps to suffer themselves to be shut up here, and not to make
another dash for freedom."
"Well, I shall be glad if we make another attempt to get through their
lines," I said thoughtfully.
"That's what the Major said, when, hang me! if the chief didn't turn
suddenly round like a weathercock, and say that what we were doing was
quite right, because we held this great force of Boers occupied so that
the General might carry out his plans without being harassed by so large
a body of men."
"That's right enough," I said.
"Don't you get blowing hot and cold," cried Denham, with impatience.
"Then some one else sided with the Colonel. It was the doctor, I think.
He said the General must know when, where, and how we were situated,
and that sooner or later he would attack the Boers, rout them, and set
us at liberty."
"That sounds wise," I hazarded.
"No, it doesn't," said my companion; "because we shouldn't want setting
at liberty then. Do you suppose that if we heard the General's guns,
and found that he was attacking the enemy, we should sit still here and
look on?"
"Well, it wouldn't be right," I replied.
"Right? Of course not. As soon as the attack was made we should file
out and begin to hover on the enemy's flank or rear, or somewhere else,
waiting our time, and then go at them like a wedge and scatter them.
Oh, how I do long to begin!"
"It seems to me," I said thoughtfully, "that the General ought to have
sent some one to find us and bring us a despatch ordering the Colonel
what to do."
"I dare say he has--half-a-dozen by now--and the Boers have captured
them; but it doesn't matter."
"Doesn't matter?" I said wonderingly.
"No; because, depend upon it, he'd have ordered us to sit fast till he
came."
"Well, but oughtn't the Colonel to have sent out a despatch or two
telling the General how we are fixed?"
"Yes--no--I don't know," said Denham sourly. "I'm only a subaltern--a
bit of machinery that is wound up sometimes by my superior officers, and
then I turn round till I'm stopped. Subalterns are not expected to have
any brains, or to think for themselves."
"Now you are exaggerating," I said.
"Not a bit of it, my little man. But I know what I should have done if
I had been chief."
"What's that?"
"Sent out a smart fellow who could track and ride."
"With a despatch for the General?"
"No; a message that couldn't fall into the enemy's hands. I'd have gone
like a shot."
"You couldn't send yourself," I said dryly.
"Eh? What do you mean?"
"You were telling me what you would have done if you had been chief."
"Bah! Yah! Don't you pretend to be so sharp. That's what the old man
ought to do, though--send out a messenger, and if he didn't find the
General he'd find out how things are going. I believe the Boers are
licking our regular troops."
"Oh, nonsense!" I said, looking startled. "Impossible."
"Nothing's impossible in war, my boy. I'm getting uncomfortable. You'd
go with a message if you were ordered?"
"Of course," I said.
"Of course you would. That's what the chief ought to do, and I've a
good mind to tell him so. But I say," he added, in alarm, "don't you go
and tell any one what I've been talking about."