Elliot Lees then came up again from our
left. Mr. Stanley, seeing the hot corner we were in, retired us about a
dozen yards back to the deepest part of the donga, where our led horses
were, and ordered the fellows with the horses to retire, and later, gave
the command for us to do the same in rushes by threes. Meanwhile our
bandoliers were nearly empty, and the Boers were creeping round to our
right, which would enable them to enfilade our position. The first three
retired, and we were blazing away to cover them, with our heads just
showing as we fired over the top of the donga, when the man on my right
said, "Mr. Stanley is hit," and looking at him, for he was close to me
on my left, I saw he was shot through the head, the blood pouring down
his face. Sir Elliot, the other man, and myself were the only ones left
in the donga then, so the captain, taking hold of poor Stanley by his
shoulders, and I his legs, we started to carry him off. As we picked him
up, he insisted, in a voice like that of a drunken man, on somebody
bringing his carbine and hat. "Where's my rifle an' hat? Rifle an' hat!"
The third man took them and gat--I heard this later. You have no idea
what a weight a mortally-wounded man is, and the poor fellow was in
reality rather lightly built. On we went, stumbling over stones, a
ditch, and into little chasms in the earth. Once or twice he mumbled,
"Not so fast, not so fast!" The bullets buzzed, whistled, and hummed by
us, missing us by yards, feet, and inches, knocking up the dust and
hitting the stones and thorn bushes we staggered through. We, of course,
presented a big mark for the Boers, and were not under any covering
fire so far as I am aware. The captain, who is grit all through, soon
found it impossible to carry the poor fellow by the shoulders, the
weight being too much for him, so I offered, and we changed places, Sir
Elliot taking his legs and on we went, pausing, exhausted, perspiring
and breathless, now and again, for a rest. At last, turning to our left,
we reached a little bit of cover, thanks to a friendly rise in the
ground, and falling into a kind of deep rut with Stanley's body on top
of me, I waited while the captain went to see if he could get any
assistance. Presently he returned with a Somerset man; and a minute or
so later a Fife fellow, a medical student, came up. The former and I
then got him on a little farther. After a few minutes' deliberation, the
captain said, reluctantly, "we