w
us home. Second, and more important, this commando was driven westward,
and others were drawn westward to aid it--and the Dundee force was
marching in from the east. Dragging sore feet along the miry roads they
heard the guns at Rietfontein and were glad. The seeming objectless
cannonade secured the unharassed home-coming of the 4000 way-weary
marchers from Dundee.

XI.

THE BOMBARDMENT.

LONG TOM--A FAMILY OF HARMLESS MONSTERS--OUR INFERIORITY IN
GUNS--THE SENSATIONS OF A BOMBARDMENT--A LITTLE CUSTOM BLUNTS
SENSIBILITY.

LADYSMITH, _Nov. 10._

"Good morning," banged four-point-seven; "have you used Long Tom?"

"Crack-k--whiz-z-z," came the riving answer, "we have."

"Whish-h--patter, patter," chimed in a cloud-high shrapnel from Bulwan.
It was half-past seven in the morning of November 7; the real
bombardment, the terrific symphony, had begun.

During the first movement the leading performer was Long Tom. He is a
friendly old gun, and for my part I have none but the kindest feelings
towards him. It was his duty to shell us, and he did; but he did it in
an open, manly way.

Behind the half-country of light red soil they had piled up round him
you could see his ugly phiz thrust up and look hungrily around. A jet of
flame and a spreading toad-stool of thick white smoke told us he had
fired. On the flash four-point-seven banged his punctilious reply. You
waited until you saw the black smoke jump behind the red mound, and then
Tom was due in a second or two. A red flash--a jump of red-brown dust
and smoke--a rending-crash: he had arrived. Then sang slowly through the
air his fragments, like wounded birds. You could hear them coming, and
they came with dignified slowness: there was plenty of time to get out
of the way.

Until we capture Long Tom--when he will be treated with the utmost
consideration--I am not able to tell you exactly what brand of gun he
may be. It is evident from his conservative use of black powder, and
the old-gentlemanly staidness of his movements, that he is an elderly
gun. His calibre appears to be six inches. From the plunging nature of
his fire, some have conjectured him a sort of howitzer, but it is next
to certain he is one of the sixteen 15-cm. Creusot guns bought for the
forts of Pretoria and Johannesburg. Anyhow, he conducted his enforced
task with all possible humanity.

On this same 7th a brother Long Tom, by the name of Fiddling Jimmy,
opened on the Ma