derly manner, and I remember thinking that where there was no
panic there could be but little danger. An officer of this guard came
down the road and told us all his men had turned out without exception,
including an old fellow of seventy, and stone-deaf, who had been roused
by the rifle-fire, and one minus several fingers recently blown off by a
shell. I went out to the front of the house facing the stadt, and
therefore sheltered from the hail of bullets coming from the east; and
just as we were noticing that objects could be discerned on the road,
that before were invisible, forked tongues of lurid light shot up into
the sky in the direction where, snug and low by the Malopo River, lay
the natives' habitations. Even then one did not realize what was
burning, and someone said: "What a big grass fire! It must have
commenced yesterday." At the same moment faint cries, unmistakable for
Kaffir ejaculations, were borne to us by the breeze, along with the
smell of burning thatch and wood, and the dread sentence with which I
commenced this chapter seemed to grow in volume, till to one's excited
fancy it became a sort of chant, to which the yells of the blacks, the
unceasing rattle of musketry, formed an unholy accompaniment. "Hark,
what is that?" was a universal exclamation from the few folk, mostly
women, standing in front of Mr. Weil's house, as a curious hoarse cheer
arose--not in the stadt, half a mile away, but nearer, close by, only
the other side of the station, where was situated the B.S.A.P. fort, the
headquarters of the officer commanding the Protectorate Regiment. This
so-called fort was in reality an obsolete old work of the time of Sir
Charles Warren's 1884 expedition, and was but slightly fortified.

The Boers, after setting fire to the stadt, had rushed it, surprising
the occupants; and the horrible noise of their cheering arose again and
again. Then a terrific fusillade broke out from this new direction,
rendering the roadway a place of the greatest danger. My quarters were
evidently getting too hot, and I knew that Weil's house and store would
be the first objective of the Boers. I bethought me even novices might
be useful in the hospital, so I decided to proceed there in one way or
another. Although the rifle-fire was slackening towards the east, from
the fort, on the west it was continuing unabated; and the way to the
hospital lay through the most open part of the town. Calling to our
soldier servant of the