our whole
position at once. I determined to make the best of it, and _if_ we
were not discovered by the scouts, to open fire on the main body when
they were just on the other side of the river bunched up on the bank,
waiting for those in front. Here we could fire on them; but it would
be at a much longer range than I had intended. It was really a stroke
of luck that I had discovered this serious fault, for otherwise we
might have let the bulk of the enemy cross the drift without
discovering the little fact of the dead ground till too late. I
reflected, also (though it was not much consolation), that I had erred
in good company, for how often had I not seen a "brass-hat" ride along
on horseback, and from that height fix the exact position for trenches
in which the rifles would be little above the ground. These trenches,
however, had not been put to the test of actual use. My error was not
going to escape in the same way.

Meanwhile the enemy's scouts had advanced in much the same way as
detailed before, except that after coming past Incidentamba Farm they
had not halted suspiciously, but came on in small groups or clumps.
They crossed the river in several places and examined the bushy banks
most carefully, but finding no "khakis" there, they evidently
suspected none on the open veldt beyond them, for they advanced "any
way" without care. Several of the clumps joined together, and came on
chatting in one body of some thirty men. Would they examine the kraal,
or would they pass on? My heart beat. The little hill we were on
would, unluckily, be certain to prove an attraction for them, because
it was an excellent vantage ground whence to scan the horizon to the
south, and to signal back to the main body to the north. The kraal was
also a suitable place to off-saddle for a few minutes while the main
body came up to the drift, and it meant possibly a fire, and therefore
a cup of coffee. They rode up towards it laughing, chatting, and
smoking, quite unsuspecting. We uttered no sound. Our Dutch and Kaffir
guests uttered no sound either, for in their pits was a man with a
rifle alongside them. At last they halted a moment some 250 yards away
on the northeast, where the slope of the hill was more gradual and
showed them all up. A few dismounted, the rest started again straight
towards us. It was not magnificent, but it was war. I whistled.

* * * * *

About ten of them succeeded in galloping off,