78 Pages - The Black Vault

dense thorn and other bushes, which formed ascreen impenetrable to the sight. They were alsobroken by small ravines and holes, where the earthhad been eaten away by the river when in flood, andwere consequently very rouqh.Some 2000 odd meters north of the drift was a flattopped,rocky mountain, and about a mile to thenorth-east appeared the usual suger-loaf kopje, coveredwith bushes and boulders—steep on the south,but gently falling to the north; this had a farm on thenear side of it. About 1000 meters south of the driftwas a convex and smooth hill, somewhat like an invertedbasin, sparsely sown with small boulders, andwith a Kaffir kraal, consisting of a few grass mudhuts on top. Between the river and the hills on thenorth the ground consisted of open and almost levelveld; on the south bank the veld was more undulating,and equally open. The whole place wascovered with ant-hills.My orders were to hold Duffer’s Drift at all costs.I should probably be visited by some column withinthree or four days time, I might possibly be attackedbefore that time, but this was very unlikely, as noenemy were known to be within a hundred miles.The enemy had guns.It all seemed plain enough, except that the trueinwardness of the last piece of information did notstrike me at the time. Though in company with fifty“good men and true, ” it certainly made me fee! somewhatlonely and marooned to be left out there comparativelyalone on the boundless veld; but thechance of an attack filled me, and I am quite sure, mymen, with martial ardour. At last here was the chance9