ched," which was the great thing, and the trench
was all round our camp, so we were well prepared, even should we be
attacked during the night or early next morning, which was out of the
question.

During this time one or two strangers had approached the guard of the
north from a farm under Incidentamba. As they had eggs and butter,
etc., to sell, these were brought in as arranged for. The man sent in
with the stuff reported that the elder of the Dutchmen was a most
pleasant man, and had sent me a present of a pat of butter and some
eggs, with his compliments, and would I allow him to come in and speak
to me. However, not being such a fool as to allow him in my defences,
I went out instead, in case he had any information. His only
information was that there were no Boers anywhere near. He was an old
man, but though he had a museum of "passes," I was not to be
chloroformed by them into confidence. As he seemed friendly, and
possibly loyal, I walked part of the way back to his farm with him, in
order to look around. At dark the two examining posts came in, and two
guards were mounted close by the object I was to watch, namely, the
drift, at the same places as in my previous dream. This time, however,
there was no half-hourly shouting, nor were there any fires, and the
sentries had orders not to challenge but to shoot any person they
might see outside camp at once. They were placed standing down the
river bank, just high enough to see over the top, and were thus not
unnecessarily exposed. Teas had been eaten, and all fires put out at
dusk, and after dark all turned in, but in the trenches instead of in
tents. After going round sentries to see everything snug for the
night, I lay down myself with a sense of having done my duty, and
neglected no possible precaution for our safety.

* * * * *

Just before dawn much the same happened as already described in my
first dream, except that the ball was started by a shot without
challenge from one of our sentries at something moving among the bush,
which resulted in close range fire opening onto us from all sides.
This time we were not rushed, but a perfect hail of bullets whistled
in from every direction--from in front of each trench, along each
trench, and from behind each trench, and over and through our parapet.
It was sufficient to put a hand or head up to have a dozen bullets
through and all round it, and the strange part was, we saw no one. A