A few curt orders, and his whole force was making its way to the rear.

There, out of range of those perilous guns, they halted, the telegraph wire was cut, a telephone attachment was made, and French whispered his troubles into the sympathetic ear of Ladysmith.

He did not whisper in vain.

What he had to say was that where he had expected a few hundred riflemen he found something like two thousand, and that where he expected no guns he found two very excellent ones.

The reply was that by road and by rail as many men as could be spared were on their way to join him.
Soon they began to drop in, those useful reinforcements--first the Devons, quiet, business-like, reliable; then the Gordons, dashing, fiery, brilliant.