undred" pace in a slanting run towards the ambulance waggons.
Several other wounded men leapt up and joined him. One of them was
immediately shot through the shoulder, and the good sergeant again
stopped and bandaged him. The Boers had been watching him, and as he
recommenced his devious course they sent two bullets through a bush two
feet in front of him. These small bushes formed very inadequate cover,
and the enemy, taking for granted that men were lying concealed behind
them, fired repeatedly into the shrubs. In one case no less than eight
Highlanders were shot behind one bush.

I have made no attempt to give a detailed account of the day's
fighting. If I did I should naturally speak of the excellent work done
by the Guards on the right, where the Scandinavian contingent was almost
annihilated, and, later on in the day, by the Gordons, who left their
convoy work on the left and advanced gallantly towards the Boer
position. No praise can be too high for our artillery. It was their
excellent shooting that helped our men to rally after the first shock,
and which ultimately succeeded in driving the Boers from their first
line of trenches. These trenches were admirably constructed in long deep
parallel lines connected at the ends so that a force could advance or
withdraw from any point without being noticed by ourselves. Shell fire
could do little against troops so splendidly entrenched. The Boers, like
the Turks at Plevna, crept under their _epaulements_ while the shells
screamed overhead or swept the parapets with shrapnel bullets, and then,
when this tyranny was overpast, crept out and poured in one of the most
terrific fusilades of the century's warfare.

When we returned to Modder River with our carriages ready for a fresh
load we found all our troops and guns back again in camp. The trenches,
however, were manned, and every one on the alert. The armistice to bury
the dead expired on the 13th, and a Boer commando had been sighted to
the west. In a brief interval of leisure I took a short stroll, and I
noticed how much more plentiful tobacco was now than a month ago when a
Mauser rifle was offered for a sixpenny packet of cigarettes. One
soldier told me that he had actually paid three shillings for a single
cigarette.

We loaded up with 120 fresh cases and steamed off for Capetown. The
armoured train was moving fitfully about as we left, but the poor
thing's energies were rather cramped as the line disappeared abou