hours. Three guns had been
trained on our new "possession." To dislodge its garrison, however, more
vigorous measures were called for; and desperate though they continued
to grow, the Boers had no bayonets, without which it was hardly possible
for them to achieve their purpose. Long Tom at Kamfers Dam was too far
off to communicate with the proud usurper; it had perforce to content
itself with the city streets, into which the shells kept falling for
some hours in the forenoon--until positively the last of the missiles
ended its blaze with a groan at eleven o'clock! That the bombardment
would be resumed when the gun had "cooled" nobody thought of doubting
for an instant; and when three hours had sped, when the gun had had time
to become a veritable cucumber, the rumour-monger, positive, superior,
laconic to the last, attributed its silence to a "loose screw!" But, for
us, the screw was never tightened; Kimberley had indeed heard the last
of Long Tom. Our scepticism, however, remained robust, and would not
permit us to treat with aught but ridicule the vaunted wonders with
which the day was to be fraught.

The Colonel and his staff still comported themselves with Patrician
dignity (as befitted their station), only condescending occasionally to
utter unofficial words of cheer. But these utterances were taken for
what they were worth, and the experience of four months had taught us
to estimate their value at rather less than nothing. When, therefore,
towards two o'clock in the afternoon the unfolding of a tale descriptive
of an approaching body of eight thousand cavalry had begun, we
derisively snapped our fingers at the story. With amazing persistence
the narrative was shouted aloud, and with a positiveness which such
angry retorts as "Am I a fool!" "Don't come it on me!" "You're a liar!"
etc., could not subdue. Undaunted the heralds of the oncoming Column
carried their message to every ear, to be accepted or rejected. The bulk
of the people stipulated to "see" the Column, and then they "might"
believe; and it was hard even to induce them to get on to the roof for a
view. The ladies in the mines, who, uncomfortable as they were, had a
horror of being fooled any more, also perversely refused to stir until
they _saw_ the Column; it was not easy to persuade them that an
adjournment to the surface of dull earth was an indispensable
preliminary to the testimony of their eyes. Courier after courier
arrived with the grand and gl