"
At ten o'clock most of the party retired into a small shed a few yards
away, but two remained sitting by the fire, and were evidently left on
guard, for they kept their rifles close at hand. The lads now crawled
away some distance, and then made their way down a steep bank to the
river. It was a stream of some size, running with great rapidity, and it
did not take them long to decide that it would be impossible to swim out
with the cases and place these in such a situation that the explosion
would damage the structure. They then moved quietly up to the spot where
the end of the last span touched the level ground; it rested upon a
solid wall built into the rock, and ran some forty feet above their
heads. They were now just under where the Boers were sitting, could hear
their voices, and see the glow of their fire. They were unable to make
out the exact position of the girders, but they had, when watching it,
obtained a general view of the construction.
It consisted of two lines of strong girders on each side, connected by
lattice bars, with strong communications between the sides at each pier.
The depth of the girders was some twenty feet. After cautiously feeling
the wall and finding that there were no openings in which their
explosives could be placed, they crawled away noiselessly, ascended to
the bank again a couple of hundred yards from the bridge, and returned
to their camping ground.
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