78 Pages - The Black Vault

in the book, besides, in all the manoeuvres I had attendedand tactical schemes I had seen, the “defence”always held a position on top of a hill or ridge.My duty was plain: Waschout Hill seemed the onlyplace which did not contravene any of the 19 lessonsI had learnt, and up it I walked. As I stood near oneof the huts, I got an excellent view of the drift andits southern approach just over the bulge of the hill,and a clear view of the river further east and west. Ithought at first I would demolish the few grass andmatting huts which, with some empty kerosene tinsand heaps of bones and debris, formed the Kaffirkraal; but on consideration I decided to play cunning,and that this same innocent-looking Kaffir kraalwould materially assist me to hide my de,fences, Imade out my plan of operations in detail, and we hadsoon conveyed all our stores up to the top of thehill, and started work.Upon the return of the patrols with their prisoners,the Dutchmen and “boys” were told off to dig forthemselves and their females. The Kaffirs of the kraalwe had impressed to assist at once,(see Map 6.)My arrangements were as follows: All round thehuts on the hilltop and close to them, we dug someten short lengths of deep-firing trenches, curved inplan, and each long enough to hold five men. Thesetrenches had extremely low parapets, really onlyserving. as rifle rests, some of the excavated earthbeing heaped up behind the trenches to the heightof a foot or so, the remainder being dealt with as describedlater. In most cases the parapets were pro-49—