"Beastly shame that the Boers hadn't buried themselves instead of the guns!" Carew remarked, as he wrestled with a tough thong of bully beef which yielded to his jaws much as an India-rubber eraser might have done.
Without making any pretence of extracting nutriment from his own ration, Weldon converted it into a missile and hurled it straight at his companion.
"There's this difference," he returned pithily; "a gun is a good enough fellow to deserve Christian burial.Carew, do you ever yearn for the fleshpots?"Without bringing his jaws to a halt, Carew shook his head.
"Do you?" he asked, after a prolonged interval.
"Yes, if they could be brought here; not otherwise.I like the game;but I also like a little more oats mixed with my fodder.How long is it since we had a square meal?""How long since we halted in that pineapple grove, coming up from Durban?" Carew retorted."That made up for a good deal.You have no cause to rebel, though.Between Paddy and Kruger Bobs, you stand in for all the tidbits that are going."With a mock sigh, Weldon pointed backward over his shoulder.
"But unfortunately Kruger Bobs and The Nig are left behind in the shadow of Naauwpoort's dreary heights.By the way, Carew, does it ever strike you that these Boers make a lot more fuss over their spelling than they do over their pronunciation? At home, we'd get as good results out of dozens less letters.""They make as good use of their extra letters as they do of their extra bullets," Carew returned tranquilly."They've been sniping, all the morning long, and they have only hit a man and a quarter now.""Which was the quarter?"
Turning, Carew displayed a jagged hole in his left sleeve.Weldon laughed unfeelingly.
"Can't you keep out of range, you old target? If there's a bullet coming your way, it's bound to graze you.""This is only the fourth.Only one of those really meant business.
Oh, hang it! There they go again!" he burst out, as a distant line of rocks crackled explosively and, a moment later, a random bullet opened up the side of his shoe.
With the swift change of occupation to which the past four months had accustomed them, they were soon in the saddle and galloping off across the rolling veldt.Before them, a pair of guns were pounding away at the rocky line and its flanking bushes, and beyond, over the crest of the next ridge, scores of thick-set, burly figures were racing in search of shelter, with a fragment of the Scottish Horse in hot pursuit.
Neck and neck in the vanguard raced Weldon and Carew, with Captain Frazer's huge khaki-colored horse hard on their heels.To Weldon, the next hour was one of fierce excitement and pleasure.The shriek of the shells, long since left behind, the flying figures before them, the rise and fall of his own gray little broncho as she stretched herself to measure the interminable veldt, the khaki-colored desert, dotted with huge black rocks and shimmering with the heat waves which rose above it towards the midday sun: his pulses tingled and his head throbbed with the glorious rush of it all.
And then the slouching figures were met by other slouching figures, and reluctantly Weldon drew in his horse, as the halt was ordered.
Only madness would prolong the chase against such heavy odds.Mere sanity demanded that the troopers should delay until the column came up.The action must wait, while the heliograph flashed its call for help.Weldon grumbled low into Carew's ear, as the minutes dragged themselves along, broken only by indeterminate volleys.
"I have exactly five rounds left," he said at length."I believe in obedience, Carew; but, when I get this used up, by jingo, I'll pitch into those fellows on my own account.""Keep cool," Carew advised him temperately."You always were a thriftless fellow; you must have been wasting your fire.Oh, I say, what's the row in the rear?""The column, most likely.It's time, too.Those fellows would be on us in a minute.Ah ha!" And Weldon drew a quick breath of admiration, as the guns came up at the gallop under the watchful eye of the Imperial Yeomanry.
Once in position on a rise to the left, quickly the guns unlimbered and opened fire, while the sergeants gathered around the boxes of spare cartridges on the ground beside the panting ammunition horse.
Then at last came the order for the advance, the order so eagerly awaited by Weldon, maddened by his long exposure to the bullets of his unseen foe.In extended order, the squadrons galloped forward until their goal was a scant five hundred yards away, when of a sudden a murderous fire broke out from the rocks in front of them, emptying many a saddle and dropping many a horse.Under such conditions, safety lay only in an unswerving charge.
Close on their leaders' heels, the troopers spurred forward and, revolver in right hand, rifle in left, they charged over the remaining bit of ground and into the midst of the Boer position.
Briton and Boer met, face to face.Revolvers cracked; Boers dropped.
Mausers crashed; Britons fell.And then, through and over, the British charge had passed.
Even then Weldon found no place for pause.From behind the Boer position, a band of their reinforcements came galloping down upon him.Caught between the two lines, the squadrons wheeled about, fell again upon the broken enemy, dashed through them and, amid the leaden hail, retired upon their own guns.And now once more the gunners could reopen fire, and the shells dropped thick and fast.
The moment for a general advance had come.In open order, a thousand men dashed forward and reached the ridge, only to see the retiring foe galloping away in all directions across the open veldt.A halt was ordered, to rest the winded mounts.Pickets were thrown out on front and flank, while the British awaited their approaching convoy.
That night, the column rested upon the veldt at Vlaakfontein.
