78 Pages - The Black Vault

about--that’s what it should have been. ” “To whichchipped in a third, “Yes, and something to keep theblighters from shooting us in the back wouldn’t avedone us much ‘arm, anyway. ”There were evidently more things in earth than Ihad hitherto dreamt of in my philosophy!As we trekked away to the north under a detachedguard of Beers, many little points such as the abovesank into my soul, but I could not for some time solvethe mystery of why we had not succeeded in surprisingthe enemy. There were no men, wormen, children,or Kaffirs who, knowing of our arrival, could havewarned them. How did they spot our presence sosoon, as they evidently must have done when theystopped and consulted in the morning? It was notuntil passing Incidentamba, as I casually happenedto look round and survey the scene of the fight fronlthe enemy’s point of view, that I discovereci the simpleanswer to the riddle. There on the smooth yellowslope of the veld just south of the drift was a browr]--ish-red streak, as conspicuous as the Long Man ofWilmington on the dear old Sussex downs, whicl]positively shrieked aloud, “Hi! Hi! Hi!--this way forthe British defence. ” I then grimly smiled to think ofmyself sitting like a “slick Alick” in that poster of atrench and expecting to surprise anybody!Besides having been enfiladed and also taken inreverse, we had again found ourselves at a disadvantageas compared with the concealec! enemyshooting at close range, from having to show up ata fixed place in order to fire.Eventually I collected the following lessons--11. For a small isolated post and an active enemy,there are no flanks, no rear, or, to put it otherwise, it45