With Steyn and De Wet | Page 8

at like a deer. Finally the shelter of a
dry watercourse was reached. Following this for some distance, I
encountered another party of our men, to whom I handed my charge,
too shaken to repeat the experiment. The firing now slackened off, and
I returned to my chief, full of mortification over my failure.
It was evident the hill would not be taken that afternoon, so we returned
to our tent, intending to come back the next morning. Late that evening,
however, Colonel Villebois passed and told us our forces had been
withdrawn, General Botha being ordered to Colenso, where Buller had
made a feint attack to help Ladysmith.
Our struggle was therefore a failure, but it had not been made in vain,
since it proved once again that we also could storm a fortified hill, and
fight a losing fight--the hardest fight of all.

SPION KOP
Something peculiar began to be observed about the British camp at
Chieveley. The naval guns still flashed by day, the searchlight still
signalled to Ladysmith of nights, the tents still glistened in the sun, but
the soldiers, where were they?
Marching somewhere up the river. Buller meant to try his luck once
more. More than one of our present leaders had in former days fought
by Buller's side against the Zulus. They knew him tenacious, able; no
mere theorist. It was here in Natal, under their eyes, that he had gained

his Victoria Cross--the same priceless bit of bronze that young Roberts
had just died to win; and they felt that to ward off his second blow
would ask all our energy and cost many useful lives.
The commandoes on our side of the river were extended to keep pace
with the enemy's movements on the other. The distance between the
different laagers lengthened considerably, and a speedy and certain
method of communication soon became a necessity. To obtain this use
was made of the vibrator, an instrument so sensitive that the most
faulty line will carry sufficient electricity to work it. Having received
orders to accompany the construction party, I said good-bye to my
comfortable quarters, and found myself in the veld once again.
While the two waggons loaded with wire, etc., went on by road we
struck across country, myself on horseback, a vibrator strapped to the
saddle, the others on foot. Half a dozen Kafirs accompanied us,
carrying rolls of "cable," wire about the thickness of the lead in a pencil
and covered with gutta percha. A wooden "saddle" holding one roll of
wire was strapped on the back of one of the natives, one end of the wire
joined up to the instrument in the office; the native marched forward,
the wire unrolling as he went, and the other boys placing stones upon it
here and there in order to prevent its being dragged about by cattle. In
this manner we went forward, establishing an office at every laager on
the way, with the result that every commando was always fully
informed as to the situation of all the others, and the enemy's every
movement immediately known to the entire forces, enabling
reinforcements to be sent anywhere at any time.
This system was an easy one to learn, and it has been said that some of
our generals became so fond of it that the slightest movement of the
enemy was the signal for a request for reinforcements. This is, no doubt,
a frivolous exaggeration.
The first day of laying the cable we had gone about fifteen miles, when
communication with the office suddenly ceased. Telling the others to
go on, I turned back and carefully tested the line, eventually finding the
fault at sundown. Reporting my whereabouts to the office, I was
ordered to follow the working party as rapidly as possible, the chief
adding that it was especially desired to have communication the same
night with the Standerton laager, where the others would have arrived
by this time. I therefore pushed on, following the wire. It was pretty

dark when I reached the foot of a mountain. Right across the cable led
me--rather a difficult matter tracing it in the dark--but at last an open
plain on the other side was reached; a few miles further I found one of
our men stretched out in the grass by the side of the cable.
"Where's the Standerton laager?"
"This is where it was. Shifted yesterday; don't know where to. Others
gone to find out. Got a blanket?"
I had not. We had no idea where the waggons were. We lay down to
shiver, not to sleep, for the intense cold made the latter impossible and
the former obligatory. In the middle of the night we moved round to the
other side of the antheap, thinking it must be warmer