78 Pages - The Black Vault

lankets, and, moreover, every tworninutes we hadto look round to see if the sentry at the camp hacjsignal led any enemy in sight. This was to be doneby raising a pole on the highest hut. The result of ourwork was splendid, We saw a Kaffir kraal on a hill,and to us “it was nothing more. ” There were theheaps of debris usually round a kraal, looking mostnatural, but no heads were visible, and no trenches.There was only one fault, and that was that a fewthoughtless men began, as we looked, to spread theirbrown army blankets out in the sun on top of thehuts and on the veld. To the veriest new churn thesesquare blots, like squares of brown sticking-plasterall around the kraal, would have betokened somethingunusual. To remedy this before it was too lateI hastened back.After we had done our breakfasts, and some threehours after dawn, the sentry in one of the hutsreported a force to the north. We could do nothingbut wait and hope; everything was ready, and everyman knew what to do. No head was to be raised nora rifle fired until I whistled from conning-tower; thenevery man would pop up and empty his magazineinto any of the enemy in range. If we were shelled,the men in the huts could at once drop into the deeptrenches and be safe. Standing in my conning-tower,from the loopholes of which I could see the drift, Ithought over the possibilities before us. With greatluck perhaps the Boer scouts would pass us on eitherside, and so allow us to lie low for the main body.With a view to seeing exactly how far I would let thelatter come before opening fire, and to marking theexact spot when it would be best to give the word,1 got down into the firing trenches facing the drift53—