The Sloping
Sides Of The Ditch Were Fringed With Boers, Who Had Ridden Thither
Before Dawn And Were Now Waiting For The Unsuspecting Column.
There
were not more than three hundred of them, and four times their
number were approaching; but no odds can represent the difference
between the concealed man with the magazine rifle and the man upon
the plain.
There were two dangers, however, which the Boers ran, and, skilful
as their dispositions were, their luck was equally great, for the
risks were enormous. One was that a force coming the other way
(Colvile's was only a few miles off) would arrive, and that they
would be ground between the upper and the lower millstone. The
other was that for once the British scouts might give the alarm and
that Broadwood's mounted men would wheel swiftly to right and left
and secure the ends of the long donga. Should that happen, not a
man of them could possibly escape. But they took their chances like
brave men, and fortune was their friend. The wagons came on without
any scouts. Behind them was U battery, then Q, with Roberts's Horse
abreast of them and the rest of the cavalry behind.
As the wagons, occupied for the most part only by unarmed sick
soldiers and black transport drivers, came down into the drift, the
Boers quickly but quietly took possession of them, and drove them
on up the further slope. Thus the troops behind saw their wagons
dip down, reappear, and continue on their course.
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