78 Pages - The Black Vault

on top of that kop-je on the fur side yonder. ” Oneof the men drew my attention to a few specks whichlooked like waggons moving about on the flattishshoulder of Incidentamba. Whilst I was focusing myglasses there was a “boom” from the hill, followed bya sharp report and a puff of smoke up in the air quiteclose by, then the sound as of heavy rain patteringdown some 200 feet in front of the trench, each dropraising its own little cloud of dust. This, of course,called forth the time-honoured remarks of “Whatho, she bumps!” and “Now we shan’t be long, ” whichproved only too true. I was aghast—1 had quite forgottenthe possibility of guns being used againstme, though, had 1 remembered their existence, I donot know, with my then knowledge, what differenceit would have made to my defensive measures. Asthere was some little uneasiness among my men, 1,quite cheerful in the security of our nice trench withthe thick bulletproof parapet, at once shouted out,“It’s all right, men; keep under cover, and they can’ttouch us. ” A moment later there was a second boom,the shell whistled over our heads, and the hillsidesome way behind the trench was spattered withbullets.By this time we were crouching as close as possibleto the parapet, which, though it had seemedonly quite a short time before so complete, nowsuddenly felt most woefully inadequate, with thosebeastly shells dropping their bullets down from thesky. Another boom. This time the shell burst well, andthe whole ground in front of the trench was coveredwith bullets, one man being hit, At this moment riflefire began on Waschout Hill, but no bullets came ourway, Almost immediately another shot followed32