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friendship. Farther away, near the long ridge which the enemy had held,
scores of mangled bodies were found, and at once handed over to the
Boers, while the poor wounded wretches were tended to by our surgeons.

Then, when human skill and care had done all that was possible for the
living, the troops formed up and in long lines carried their dead to the
cemetery. The rifles rang out the regulation volleys, the bugles wailed
the "Last Post", and all was over, save that each and every soldier bore
away with him from that scene a lasting memory of those brave comrades
who but a few hours before had been full of life and energy.

After that they thronged into the church, and joined earnestly in the
prayer of thanksgiving offered up for their glorious victory.

At the close of the service the men joined with such a will in singing
the National Anthem--a loyal ceremony never neglected in a garrison
church--that the strains were heard far away by the lonely pickets and
patrols, and set each one of them singing blithely as he trudged up and
down on his beat.

Jack Somerton sat amongst the officers in the church, and when the
service was over he walked across to the hospital marquees and enquired
for Guy Richardson. Even now, though the wounded had all been
collected, the surgeons had their hands more than full, for typhoid
fever and dysentery, those scourges which ever dog the footsteps of an
army, had claimed many victims, and these required the most careful
attention.

"Well, Jack, old boy," said Guy cheerfully, "tell me all about
Saturday's affair. Of course I saw that part of the fighting which
occurred at Caesar's Camp; but elsewhere our fellows were hard pressed,
they tell me."

Jack told his friend all that he knew of the engagement, and mentioned
the names of the gallant officers who had fallen.

"What are you going to do now, Jack?" his friend asked, after they had
chatted for some minutes. "The surgeon who is looking after me says we
are likely to be cooped up here for some time longer, and I am sure that
will not suit you."

"No, I don't think I care much about sticking in Ladysmith while the
siege continues," mused Jack. "You see, the Boers, by all accounts,
have entrenched all the hills between this and the Tugela, and with the
heavy guns of position which they have been able to bring down by rail
from the Transvaal, have practically made their lines impregnable. An
officer told me that it would