Boers held a British force pinned in. They knew, and we knew, that
Commandant Olivier, with eight or nine thousand men and a lot of guns, held
the reins in his hands; and the men our force were engaging knew that
unless they could keep us in check Olivier would soon be the hunted instead
of the hunter.

By-and-by the rifle fire on our left flank grew weaker and weaker--our guns
were searching the kopjes with merciless accuracy--and before sundown it
died away altogether, and we had time to collect our wounded and ascertain
our losses, though we could not even guess how the Boers had fared Our
wounded amounted to eight men all told, none of them dangerously hurt; of
dead we had none, not one. When their fire slackened the enemy doubtless
expected to see an onward dash of troops from our position, but it was not
to be. General Rundle had decided to play "patience" and save his men;
there was no necessity for him to rush on and force the Boer position, and
he chose the better part. Steadily our fellows were worked into position,
until every bit of ground that could bear upon the foe was lined with
British troops. Every available point, front or flank, where a gun could be
placed to harass the foe was taken advantage of; nothing was left to
chance, nothing was rashly hurried. Carefully, methodically the work was
done. There was to be no carnival of death on our side, no trusting to the
"luck of the British Army," no headlong rush into the arms of destruction,
no waving line of bayonets. The Boer was to play a hand with the cards he
loves to deal. He was to be shelled and sniped. If he wanted straight-out
fighting, he had to come out into the open and get it. He was to have no
chance to sit in safety and slaughter the British soldiers like shambled
deer, as he had so often done before. As the sun went down our men
bivouacked where they stood, and nothing was heard through the long, cold
night except at intervals the grim growling of a gun, the sentinels' swift,
curt challenge, or the neighing of horses as steed spoke to steed across