n quite so much of it. Yes, wiggled about--that's what it
should have been." To which chipped in a third, "Yes, and somethink to
keep the blighters from shooting us in the back wouldn't 'ave done us
much 'arm, anyway."

There were evidently more things in _earth_ than I had hitherto dreamt
of in my philosophy!

* * * * *

As we trekked away to the north under a detached guard of Boers, many
little points such as the above sank into my soul, but I could not for
some time solve the mystery of why we had not succeeded in surprising
the enemy. There were no men, women, children, or Kaffirs who knew of
our arrival, who could have warned them. How did they spot our
presence so soon, as they evidently must have done when they stopped
and consulted in the morning? It was not until passing Incidentamba,
as I casually happened to look round and survey the scene of the fight
from the enemy's point of view, that I discovered the simple answer to
the riddle. There on the smooth yellow slope of the veldt just south
of the drift was a brownish-red streak, as plain as the Long Man of
Wilmington on the dear old Sussex downs, which positively shrieked
aloud, "Hi! hi! hi!--this way for the British defence." I then grimly
smiled to think of myself sitting like a "slick Alick" in that poster
of a trench and expecting to surprise anybody!

Besides having been enfiladed and also taken in reverse, we had again
found ourselves at a disadvantage as compared with the concealed enemy
shooting at close range, from having to show up at a fixed place in
order to fire.

Eventually I collected the following lessons:

11. For a small isolated post and an active enemy, there are no
_flanks_, no _rear_, or, to put it otherwise, it is _front all round_.

12. Beware of being taken in _reverse_; take care, when placing and
making your defences, that when you are engaged in shooting the enemy
to the front of your trench, his pal cannot sneak up and shoot you in
the back.

13. Beware of being _enfiladed_. It is nasty from one flank--far worse
from both flanks.

Remember, also, that though you may arrange matters so that you cannot
be enfiladed by rifle-fire, yet you may be open to it from long range,
by means of gun or pompom fire. There are few straight trenches that
cannot be enfiladed from somewhere, if the enemy can only get there.
You can sometimes prevent being enfiladed by so placing your trench
that no one can