he subject of much speculation; that the
morrow would be a big day was the general feeling at bedtime.

The big day came round in due course; we had a big thunderstorm, but in
no other respect was Monday large. The Boers signalised the occasion by
the inauguration of a new plan of campaign, which, if the gods were
kind, would soon compel the surrender of the Diamond City. The
plan--like all great plans--was simple; a dozen guns were trained on
Kenilworth, where browsed the precious bullocks upon whose safety hung
the fate of Kimberley. To kill them all was the end in view. Inspirited
by the thought of the hunger and the "fall" that would follow, the enemy
poured forth a liberal fusillade upon Kenilworth. The cattle-guards,
exposed to grave danger, never shirked their duty. It was not until the
Boers had well warmed to their work that we managed by the play of a
Maxim to cool their ardour. The new departure was a failure. A most
incomprehensible bombardment was subsequently opened on an isolated
place, called "the Brickfields," where no animate thing above the bite
of a mosquito lived, moved, or had its being.

The exigencies of our position necessitated the cultivation of early
rising; but the Boers had, so far, invariably set the ball rolling; they
had acquired a knack of irritating us in their choice of unexpected
moments for starting operations day by day. On Tuesday the
practicability of reversing this order of things was tested by our
gunners. The effect was not clearly apparent, but our shell excited
commotion--it wakened somebody, for the Boers could be seen moving
about. Retaliation soon followed; on the Brickfields again, a choice of
objective which was quite inexplicable. There was nothing there to hit
but bricks. The enemy--perhaps obsessed by the thought that he had
filled us with terror--may have assumed that the place was being used as
a refuge. Some believed that the Town Hall was _aimed_ at, for our
confidence in the skill of the Boer gunners had yet to ripen fully. The
firing was continued for some hours until the venue was changed to
Kenilworth, with no better success than before.

We had a fair supply of ammunition for such guns as we possessed, and in
order to make it last as long as possible, economy was rigorously
observed. One day, however, De Beers astonished the Colonel by offering
to _manufacture_ shells, _ad lib_. The Colonel smiled; he was inclined
to regard the proposal as a joke of the Co