as to render them
absolutely immune from danger, for shells have a knack of falling where
least expected, and when they burst he is a wise man who falls flat on his
face and leaves the rest to his Creator and the fortune of war. My next
move was to secure a position on the top of a kopje, to try to gather some
idea concerning the actual strength of the Boer position. It needed no
soldier's training to tell a man who knew the rugged Australian ranges
thoroughly that the enemy had chosen his ground with consummate skill. To
get at the Boers our men had either to go down the sides of the kopjes in
full view of the clever enemy, or else make their way between narrow
gullies, where shells would work havoc in their packed ranks. After they
had reached the open, level ground, they had to cross open spaces of veldt
commanded by the Boer guns and rifles, whilst the Boers themselves sat
tight in a row of ranges that ran from east to west, mile after mile, in
almost unbroken ruggedness. If we turned either flank, they could promptly
fall back upon another line of kopjes as strong as those they held. Away
behind their position the grim heights of Thaba Nchu rose towards the blue
sky, solemn and stately. Far away to the eastward, a little south of east
perhaps, I could see the hills that hid Wepener, distant about eighteen
miles from the Boer centre. There we knew, and the enemy knew, that the
Boers held a British force pinned in. They knew, and we knew, that
Commandant Olivier, with eight or nine thousand men and a lot of guns, held
the reins in his hands; and the men our force were engaging knew that
unless they could keep us in check Olivier would soon be the hunted instead
of the hunter.

By-and-by the rifle fire on our left flank grew weaker and weaker--our guns
were searching the kopjes with merciless accuracy--and before sundown it
died away altogether, and we had time to collect our wounded and ascertain
our losses, though we could not even guess how the Boers had fared Our
wounded amounted to eight men all told, none of them dangerously hurt; of
dead we had none, not one. When their fire slackened the enemy doubtless
expected to see an onward dash of troops from our position, but it was not
to be. General Rundle had decided to play "patience" and save his men;
there was no necessity for him to rush on and force the Boer position, and
he chose the better part. Steadily our fellows were worked into position,
until every bit of