rapnel shell burst not far from us. A second and third followed,
after which they soon picked up our range exactly, and the shell began
to burst all about us; however, we were quite snug and happy in our
nice deep trench, where we contentedly crouched. The waste of good and
valuable shrapnel shell by the enemy was the cause of much amusement
to the men, who were in great spirits, and, as one of them remarked,
were "as cosy as cockroaches in a crack." At the expenditure of many
shells two men only were hit--in the legs.

After a time the guns ceased fire, and we at once manned the parapet
and stood up to repel an attack, but we could see no Boers, though the
air began at once to whistle and hum with bullets. Nearly all these
seemed to come from the river-bank in front, to the north and
north-east, and kept the parapet one continual spirt of dust as they
smacked into it. All we could do was to fire by sound at various
likely bushes on the river-bank, and this we did with the greatest
possible diligence, but no visible result.

In about a quarter of an hour we had had five men shot through the
head, the most exposed part. The mere raising of a head to fire seemed
to be absolutely fatal, as it had on a former occasion when we were
attempting to fire at close range over a parapet against the enemy
concealed. I saw two poor fellows trying to build up a pitiful little
kind of house of cards with stones and pieces of anthill through which
to fire. This was as conspicuous as a chimney-pot on top of the
parapet, and was at once shot to powder before they had even used it,
but not before it had suggested to me the remedy for this state of
affairs. Of course, we wanted in such a case "head cover" and
"loopholes." As usual, I was wise after the event, for we had no
chance of making them then, even had we not been otherwise harassed.
Suddenly the noise of firing became much more intense, but with the
smack of the bullets striking the earth all round quite close it was
not easy to tell from which direction this fresh firing came. At the
same time the men seemed to be dropping much oftener, and I was
impressing them with the necessity of keeping up a brisker fire to the
front, when I noticed a bullet hit _our_ side of the parapet.

It then became clear, the enemy must evidently have got into the donga
behind us (to which I paid no attention, as it was to the rear), and
were shooting us in the back as we stood up to our parapet.

Th