ore the
mind's eye made her death doubly unfortunate. But, happily, no further
damage to life or limb was to be recorded. A good many houses were hit,
though not injured materially. A shell entered the Gresham Bar, and it
was surprising that so few glasses should have been smashed; more
marvellous still that the fair bar-tender should have remained fair; she
was merely frightened. As for the proprietor, he held up fairly well.
There was a hole in his roof (I don't mean his head), but he made the
price of a decent patch in ten minutes. The men about town flocked in to
have a laugh at the mess, and were amazed to find a bottle intact, or a
bigger utensil to drink from than a "thimble" indeed.

Feeling against the Boers grew strong. Enquiries about the British
troops, their movements, their dilatoriness, were sternly renewed; it
was reckoned time to "clear the border." That Colonel Kekewich was
angry goes without saying; he despatched two mounted forces in opposite
directions to record a general protest. One of these, led by Colonel
Scott-Turner, rode towards Otto's Kopje. The enemy, however, were
apparently prepared for Turner; they opened fire with a gun, and
endeavoured to cut him off. In this they failed; they drew rather too
near, and so far from intimidating the fighting Colonel, enabled him to
register his protest very forcibly. Nine Boers were shot down; three on
the British side were injured. Meanwhile the force under Major Peakman
was protesting at Carter's Farm. The enemy there made a bold effort to
silence Peakman. But a Maxim gun has a remarkable gift of the gab; the
Major had one with him, and he let it do all the talking--with results
that quickly drove the Boers beyond the range of its Phillipics.

Notwithstanding these castigations, or perhaps because of them, the
bombardment was resumed in the afternoon. Wesselton was assailed; a few
shells also fell into Kimberley, with no serious consequences. Silence
reigned at six o'clock. It was an exciting _finale_ to the week. The
morrow would be Sunday, and glad we were to hear it. And still relief
was deferred; but the troops _were_ at Orange River, and seventy miles,
they told us, was a trifle in darkest Africa. That they (the troops)
would soon arrive did not admit of a doubt. And then?--and then the Boer
would run away or die.

CHAPTER V

_Week ending 18th November, 1899_

Sunday again! the most popular day of the seven; pre-eminently so since
th