s
the detachment wag plaintively remarked, we could have seen lots of
Boers, "if wasn't for the bushes in between."

After vainly trying until bright daylight to see the enemy in order to
do some damage in return, so many men were hit, and the position
seemed so utterly hopeless, that I had to hoist the white flag. We had
by then twenty-four men killed and six wounded. As soon as the white
flag went up the Boers ceased firing at once, and stood up; every bush
and ant-hill up to 100 yards' range seemed to have hid a Boer behind
it. This close range explained the marvelous accuracy of their
shooting, and the great proportion of our killed (who were nearly all
shot through the head) to our wounded.

As we were collecting ourselves preparatory to marching off, there
were one or two things which struck me; one was that the Dutchman who
had presented me with eggs and butter was in earnest confabulation
with the Boer commandant, who was calling him "Oom" most
affectionately. I also noticed that all the male Kaffirs from the
neighboring kraal had been fetched and impressed to assist in getting
the Boer guns and wagons across the drift and to load up our captured
gear, and generally do odd and dirty jobs. These same Kaffirs did
their work with amazing alacrity, and looked as if they enjoyed it;
there was no "backchat" when an order was given--usually by friend
"Oom."

Again, as I trudged with blistered feet that livelong day, did I
think over my failure. It seemed so strange, I had done all I knew,
and yet, here we were, ignominiously captured, twenty-four of us
killed, and the Boers over the drift. "Ah, B.F., my boy," I thought,
"there must be a few more lessons to be learnt besides those you
already know," and in order to find out what these were, I pondered
deeply over the details of the fight.

How the Boers must have known of our position, and how they had
managed to get close up all round within snapshooting range without
being discovered. What a tremendous advantage they had had in shooting
from among the bushes on the bank, where they could not be seen, over
us who had to show up over a parapet every time we looked for an
enemy, and show up, moreover, just in the very place where every Boer
expected us to, and was watching. There seemed to be some fault in the
position. How the bullets seemed sometimes to come through the
parapet, and how those that passed over one side hit the men defending
the other side in the b