78 Pages - The Black Vault

musketry in the distance, and saw a cloud of dust tothe northeast. We were relieved!Our total losses were 11 killed and 15 wounded;but we had held the drift, and so enabled a victoryto be won. I need not here touch upon the well-knownand far-reaching results of the holding of Duffer’sDrift, of the prevention thereby of Boer guns, ammunition,and reinforcements reaching one of theirsorely pressed forces at a critical moment, and theensuing victory gained by our side. It is now, ofcourse, public knowledge that this was the turningpointin the war, though we, the humble instruments,did not know what vital results hung upon our action.That evening the relieving force halted at the drift,and, after burying the dead, we spent some timeexamining the lairs of the Boer snipers, the men collectingbits of shell and cartridge cases as mementoes–onlyto be thrown away at once, We foundsome 25 dead and partly buried Beers, to whom wegave burial.That night I did not trek, but lay down (in my ownbreeches and spotted waistcoat). As the smoke fromthe “prime segar, ” presented to me by the Colonel,was eddying in spirals over my head, these graduallychanged into clouds of rosy glory, and I heard brassbands in the distance playing a familiar air: “See theConquering Hero comes, ” it sounded like.I felt a rap on my shoulder, and heard a gentlevoice say, “Arise, Sir Backsight Forethought”; butin a trite my dream of bliss was shattered—the gentlevoice changed into the well-known croak of myservant. “Time to pack your kit on the waggon, sir.Corfy’s been up some time now, sir. ”I was still in stinkingold Dreamdorp.72“US. Government Printing Office 1996- 410-595/5031 1