he rifle duel
was maintained with dogged perseverance on both sides for some time
afterwards. We were not without losses--three men having been killed and
nineteen wounded. The enemy's casualties were estimated to be thirty.
Our men had conducted themselves throughout with conspicuous courage and
coolness, though many of them were quite new to the game of war. To the
Boer, too, a meed of praise is due; for, contrary to popular tradition,
he could--and did--fight a good fight on the open veld. Turner's force
returned to the city, well satisfied with their first brush with the
enemy. The news which appeared in a special edition of the _Diamond
Fields' Advertiser_, relative to the successful dash of Atkins at
Elandslaagte (Natal), added to the enthusiasm that prevailed during the
evening; and made optimists--there were no pessimists--more sanguine
than ever in regard to the speedy capitulation of the Boers.

Our men, on Thursday, patrolled in different directions--alert for a
second encounter, if the fates were propitious. But the foe declined to
oblige; he lay low all day, presumably imbibing coffee. In the
afternoon, heavy rains, which made piquet duty none too pleasant, came
down in torrents. Tents had just been pitched at our redoubts in the
nick of time. The three men killed on Tuesday were buried with military
honours. The funeral was large--the Colonel, his staff, and several
sections of the Town Guard marching in processional order.

Meanwhile a detachment of the Cape Police were endeavouring, with all
due prudence, to lure the Boers into battle. But they did not succeed.
It was advanced as an explanation of this singular inactivity that the
nerves of the enemy were shattered--since Tuesday. It was rumoured, too,
that a number of our "friends" had gone off on a recuperating pilgrimage
to Windsorton and Klipdam--two villages which had been taken without
the waste of a cartridge and placed under the _Verkleur_. Looting
operations, it was said, were being carried out on an extensive scale,
and property was being destroyed. Such was the local estimate of Boer
shortcomings--based on flimsy data, or no data at all. In Kimberley, we
only laughed at looting, and if the Boers effected an entrance we had no
objection to the exercise of their talent for vandalism. We _said_ so;
because we were profoundly confident of our collective capacity to keep
them _out_. Cynicism was the fashion. There was so much to say on the
great t