e without having to deplore the
skill of the artillerists who could make such beautiful practice at
such a range.

Colonel Byng thought it advisable to leave the horses in the cover of
the protecting river bank, and we therefore pushed on, dismounted, and,
straggling through the high maize crop without presenting any target to
the guns, reached the wood safely. Through this we hurried as far as its
further edge. Here the riflemen on the hill opened with long-range fire.
It was only a hundred yards into the donga, and the troopers immediately
began running across in twos and threes. In the irregular corps all
appearances are sacrificed to the main object of getting where you want
to without being hurt. No one was hurt.

Colonel Byng made his way along the donga to within about twelve or
fourteen hundred yards, and from excellent cover opened fire on the
Boers holding the summit of the hill. A long musketry duel ensued
without any loss to our side, and with probably no more to the enemy.
The colonial troopers, as wary as the Dutch, showed very little to
shoot at, so that, though there were plenty of bullets, there was no
bloodshed. Regular infantry would probably have lost thirty or forty
men.

I went back for machine guns, and about half an hour later they were
brought into action at the edge of the wood. Boers on the sky-line at
two thousand yards--tat-tat-tat-tat-tat half a dozen times repeated;
Boers galloping to cover; one--yes, by Jupiter!--one on his back on the
grass; after that no more targets to shoot at; continuous searching of
the sky-line, however, on the chance of killing someone, and, in any
case, to support the frontal attack. We had altogether three guns--the
13th Hussars' Maxim under Lieutenant Clutterbuck, detached from the 4th
Hussars; one of Lord Dundonald's battery of Colts under Mr. Hill, who is
a member of Parliament, and guides the majestic course of Empire besides
managing machine guns; and our own Maxim, all under Major Villiers.

These three machines set up a most exhilarating splutter, flaring and
crackling all along the edge of the wood, and even attracted the
attention of the Boers. All of a sudden there was a furious rush and
roar overhead; two or three little cassarina trees and a shower of
branches fell to the ground. What on earth could this be? The main
action was crashing away on the right. Evidently a shell had passed a
few feet over our heads, but was it from our guns shelling th