If only they could attract the attention of that balloon! Vainly they wagged flags at it.

Serene and unresponsive it brooded over the distant battle.
And now the Boers were thickening round them on every side.

Christian de Wet, a name soon to be a household word, marshaled the Boer attack, which was soon strengthened by the arrival of Van Dam and his Police.

At five o'clock the fire began, at six it was warm, at seven warmer still.
Two companies of the Gloucesters lined a sangar on the tread of the sole, to prevent any one getting too near to the heel.

A fresh detachment of Boers, firing from a range of nearly one thousand yards, took this defence in the rear.