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B.W. Richter father of my valiant Adjutants, B.W. and Jan Richter must have been much surprised that morning when he discovered that something very like an attack was being made on Dewetsdorp. Their schanzes were built of stones, and provided with trenches. On the top of the schanzes sandbags had been placed, with spaces left between them for the rifles.
Tommy, on the other hand, could swagger along the sky-line unmolested. No doubt the Boers thought that exposed Cæsar's Camp lay within their hands. But they were very wrong. Snug behind their schanzes, the Manchesters cared as much for shells as for butterflies. Most of them were posted on the inner edge of the flat top with a quarter of a mile of naked veldt to fire across.
During the night we built these schanzes, and before the sun rose the following morning, the guns were placed in position. By daybreak the English had crept up to within a short distance of our lines. It was the Krupp and the Maxim-Nordenfeldt that gave our answer.
Behind the schanzes the men, shooting sparely because of the loss of the reserve ammunition, at first held their own with little loss. But then, as our ill-luck or Boer good management would have it, there appeared over a hill a new Boer commando, which a cool eye-witness put at over 2000 strong.
"It might not be difficult," interrupted Saduko, "but I came here to kill Bangu, as well as to seize his cattle, since with him I have a blood feud." "Very good," I answered; "but that mountain cannot be stormed with three hundred men, fortified as it is with walls and schanzes.
It was necessary to reload the waggons, for the English troops had made use of the contents to build schanzes; and excellent ones the provisions had made. The loading of the waggons was simple enough, but when it came to inspanning it was another matter. The Kaffir drivers alone knew where each span had to be placed, and there were only thirty-six Kaffirs left.
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