A shot pierced his helmet, and the shock caused him to stagger and lose his legs.

A corporal rushed up, thinking he was hit, and, finding him whole, rose, in order to leave him there, and, in rising, got a bullet through the neck.

Thus there were four men killed, and the Commanding Officer, of his own accord, put out of action.

It all happened in a few confused moments.

Then the remaining men did what Boyce should have commanded as soon as the first shot was fired--they rushed the house.
It contained one solitary inmate, an old man with a couple of Mauser rifles, whom they had to shoot in self-defence.
Meanwhile Boyce, white and haggard-eyed, had picked himself up; revolver in hand he stood on the stoep.