Those
who have endured all - the rifle, the cannon, and the hunger - have
said that those wild whoops from the sirens were what had tried
their nerve the most.
The Boers in scattered bands of horsemen were thick around the
town, and had blocked the railroad. They raided cattle upon the
outskirts, but made no attempt to rush the defence. The garrison,
who, civilian and military, approached four thousand in number, lay
close in rifle pit and redoubt waiting for an attack which never
came. The perimeter to be defended was about eight miles, but the
heaps of tailings made admirable fortifications, and the town had
none of those inconvenient heights around it which had been such
bad neighbours to Ladysmith. Picturesque surroundings are not
favourable to defence.
On October 24th the garrison, finding that no attack was made,
determined upon a reconnaissance. The mounted force, upon which
most of the work and of the loss fell, consisted of the Diamond
Fields Horse, a small number of Cape Police, a company of Mounted
Infantry, and a body called the Kimberley Light Horse. With two
hundred and seventy volunteers from this force Major Scott-Turner,
a redoubtable fighter, felt his way to the north until he came in
touch with the Boers.
