f them I meant to place my best shots, to act
as snipers, as they would have a more favorable position than the men
in the trenches below, and the fourth was a conning tower for myself.
All the tents and stores were stacked inside one of the huts out of
sight.

That evening, in spite of the hardness of the work, which caused much
grousing among my men, we had got the firing trenches complete, but
the others were not finished--they were only half the necessary depth.
The earth-walls inside the huts were also not quite completed. The
Kaffirs and Dutch had deep pits, as before, in three of the huts.
Ammunition and rations were distributed round the trenches the last
thing before we turned in. I also had all water-bottles and every
vessel that would hold water, such as empty tins, Kaffir gourds, and
cooking-pots, filled and distributed in case of a long and protracted
fight. Having issued orders as to the necessity for the greatest
secrecy in not giving away our position should Boers turn up early
next morning, I went to sleep with confidence. We had, anyhow, a very
good position, and though our communications were not quite perfect,
these we could soon improve if we had any time to ourselves the next
morning.

Next morning broke; no enemy in sight. This was excellent, and before
daylight we were hard at it, finishing the work still undone. By this
time the men had fully entered into the spirit of the thing, and were
quite keen on surprising Brother Boer if possible. While the digging
was proceeding, the "dixies" were being boiled for the breakfasts
inside four grass-screens, some of which we found lying about, so as
to show nothing but some very natural smoke above the kraal. I picked
out one or two of my smartest N.C.O.'s, and instructed them to walk
down the hill in different directions to the river-bank and try if
they could see the heads of the men in the firing trenches against the
sky. If so, the heaps of earth, tins, bones, grass-screens, etc.,
should be re-arranged so as to give a background to every man's head.

To review the place generally, I and my orderly walked off some
half-mile to the north of the river. As we were going some distance,
we doffed our helmets and wrapped ourselves in two beautiful orange
and magenta striped blankets, borrowed from our Kaffir lady guests, in
case any stray Boer should be lurking around, as he might be
interested to see two "khakis" wandering about on the veldt. It was
awkw