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This done, we sat down and waited, after making sure that every gun had plenty of ammunition ready. As the dawn broke, by climbing a tree near my schanze or shelter, I saw a good many miles away to the south a wide circle of little fires, and guessed that the natives were beginning to burn the dry reeds of the swamp. Presently these fires drew together into a thin wall of flame.
Then I knew that it was time to return to the schanze and prepare. It was full daylight, however, before anything happened. Watching the still channel of water, I saw ripples on it and bubbles of air rising. Suddenly there appeared the head of a great bull-hippopotamus which, having caught sight of our rag barricade, either above or below water, had risen to the surface to see what it might be.
Everybody was saying: "The English are burning their commissariat; they are going to surrender!" The English had a strong fort on the north, near the place where Commandant De Vos was stationed. In order to take this schanze one would have been obliged to cross 200 metres of open ground. Moreover, it was so placed that it was the only part of the English possession which De Vos's guns commanded.
The gentleman took the air elsewhere. For contiguous to the terrace of the hotel is a little public park called the Kleine Schanze haunt of well-behaved Bernese children, of motherly Bernese housewives supplied with knitting and the gossip of the town, of Bernese patriarchs in search of gentle exercise and sunshine.
He felt his position undignified, grotesque, like that of a boy detected in some bit of silly daring. Two days later they met again on the terrace of the Kleine Schanze. It was not an accidental meeting. The stranger had walked directly up to Chip to say: "The lady to whom we were referring the other night " But Chip was still on his guard. "Did I refer to a lady?" "Perhaps not. But I did.
Accordingly, when the sun had gone down, I sent orders to him that he was to storm this schanze before daybreak on the following morning. My orders were duly carried out. Commandant De Vos crept stealthily up to the fort, and was not observed by the enemy until he was close to them.
They had been reinforced the day before by a field battery and a squadron and a half of the Light Horse. And they had one schanze on the outer edge of the hill as an advanced post. In the dim of dawn, the officer in charge of this post saw the Boers creeping down behind a stone wall to the left, gathering in the bottom, advancing in, for them, close order.
As one watched them creeping from schanze to schanze, often without any cover whatever, and in danger at every moment of falling under the enemy's fire, one felt that there was still hope. On the first day we advanced until we were close to the schanzes on the south-east and on the north; we remained there during the night in our positions, our food being brought to us.
They then fired fiercely on him, killing two of his burghers, but our men would not be denied; they leapt over the schanze and compelled the enemy to surrender. The English losses on this occasion were six killed, a few wounded, and about thirty taken prisoner.
"That, I think, I must leave you to learn later. But I should like you to know at once that I'm not keeping you here without a motive." The stately figure moved on, leaving Chip to guess blindly at the possibilities in store. More days passed nearly a week. Chip spent much of his time in the Kleine Schanze, noticing that the distinguished stranger frequented it less.
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