The lads were chatting one day over the chances of the next fight, most
of them taking a very sanguine view.
"What do you say, Chris?" one of them said after the discussion had gone
on for some time. "You have not given us your opinion."
"My opinion does not agree with yours," Chris replied. "After what I saw
the other day, I think the difficulties of fighting our way over those
mountains are so enormous that I doubt whether we shall ever do it."
There was a chorus of dissent.
"Well, we shall see," he said. "I hope that we shall do it just as much
as you do, but it is tremendous business. I have no doubt Sir Redvers
will go on trying, but I should not be surprised if at heart he has
doubts that it can be done. The Boers have more guns that we have, and
any number of those Maxims and Hotchkiss that keep up a stream of balls.
The Boers' trenches enable them to fire at us without showing anything
but a head, except when they stand up or have to move across the open.
If we drive them out of one position they have others to fall back upon.
It is not one natural fortress that we have to take, but a dozen of
them. They know every foot of the country they occupy, while we know
nothing but just what we can see at a distance.
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