ches was anything but an agreeable one.
Parties of six men and an officer occupied them daily before dawn, and
remained there eighteen hours, as any attempt to leave would have meant
a hail of bullets from the enemy, distant only about 600 yards. They
were dug deep enough to require very little earthwork for protection;
hence they were more or less invisible by the enemy in their larger
trenches. These latter were constantly subjected to the annoyance of
bullets coming, apparently, from the ground, and, though other foes
might have acted differently in like circumstances, the Boers did not
care for the job of advancing across the open to dislodge the hidden
enemy.

In a very few days a new bomb-proof shelter had been constructed for me,
and to inaugurate it I gave an underground dinner with six guests. This
bomb-proof was indeed a triumph in its line, and I must describe it.
About 18 by 15 feet, and 8 feet high, it was reached by a flight of
twelve wooden steps, at the top of which was a door that gave it the
privacy of a room. It was lighted besides by three horizontal apertures,
which resembled the very large portholes of a sailing-ship, and this
illusion was increased by the wooden flaps that could be closed at will.
The roof was composed of two lots of steel rails placed one above the
other, and on these were sheets of corrugated iron and a huge tarpaulin
to keep out the rain. Above, again, were 9 feet of solid earth, while
rows upon rows of sandbags were piled outside the entrance to guard
against splinters and stray bullets. The weighty roof was supported, as
an additional precaution, on the inside by three stout wooden posts,
which, together with the rather dim light, most apparent when descending
from the brilliant sunshine outside, gave the bomb-proof the appearance
of a ship's cabin; in fact, one of my visitors remarked it much reminded
him of the well-known print of the _Victory's_ cockpit when Nelson lay
a-dying. The interior panelling was painted white. One wall was entirely
covered with an enormous Union Jack, and the other was decorated with
native weapons, crowned by a trophy of that very war--namely, the only
Mauser carbine then taken from the Boers. To complete the up-to-date
nature of this protected dwelling, a telephone was installed, through
the medium of which I could in a second communicate with the Staff
Headquarters, and have due notice given me of "Creechy's" movements. In
this shelter it was c