Sean lay back and closed his eyes. He was very weary, his eyes felt
gritty from the dust and smoke, his lower body was wet and cold, his
boots heavy with mud. Lyddite fumes had given him a blinding
headache.
I should have put a look, out on the ridge, he thought again.
My God! What a mess I've made of this. My first command and already
I've lost all the horses and damn, nigh half of my men.
I should have put a look, out on the ridge.
They took the ridge a few minutes after midnight with hardly any
opposition. The few Boer sentries made good time down the far slope
and Sean looked down upon the Boer laagers. The camp fires glimmered
in an irregular line along the valley. Men stood around them staring
up at the ridge. Sean scattered them with a dozen lusty volleys, and
then yelled,
'Cease firing. Eccles, get the men settled in. We are going to have
visitors fairly soon. ' The Boers had built scharnzes along the crest
which saved Sean's men much inconvenience and within ten minutes the
Maxims were em placed and Sean's two hundred unwounded men waited
behind walls of rough rock for the Boer counterattack. This took some
time to develop for the situation necessitated a hurried War Council in
the valley below. But at last they heard the first stealthy approach
of the attackers.
'Here they come, Sergeant, Major. Hold your fire, please.'
The burghers worked their way up cautiously and when Sean could hear
their voices whispering among the rocks he decided they were close
enough and discouraged further intimacy with volleyed rifle, fire and
the use of all his Maxims. The Boers replied with heat and at the
height of the exchange the Hotchkiss gun joined in from the valley.
Its first shell passed but a few feet over Sean's head, then burst in
the valley behind him. The second and third shots dropped neatly among
the attacking Boer riflemen and raised such a howl of protest that the
gunners, their efforts not appreciated, maintained an aloof and
offended silence for the rest of the night.
Sean had expected a determined night attack but it soon became clear
that Leroux was fully aware of the danger of closely engaging an
inferior force in the dark. He contented himself with keeping Sean
awake all night, his burghers taking it in turn to come up and keep the
short, range rifle duel going, and Sean began to have qualms about the
wisdom of his offensive. Dawn would find him on a rocky ridge, facing
a numerically superior force, with his line anchored at neither end,
and short enough to be easily flanked and en filtrated He remembered
Spion Kopand there was little comfort in the memory. But the
alternative was to fall back on the river, and his hackles rose at the
thought.
Unless relief came soon, defeat was certain, better here on the high
ground than in the mud. We'll stay, he decided.
In the dawn there was a hill but although the gunfire dwindled to an
occasional crack and flash on the lower slope yet Sean could sense an
increase of activity among the Boers. Ominous rustlings and the muted
