Unless the Boers knew of some very shallow
place, there would be no crossing it; for it was running like a mill-
stream, and except at some waggon drift the banks were almost
perpendicular. At any rate I could not hope to swim half across before
the Boers came up, and so I must fight it out where I was. I had
scarcely found a point where I could get a comfortable foothold on the
bank, with my head just above the level, when the Boers appeared on the
top of the hill. They stopped for a minute and then broke up, and
scattering rode forward. They felt sure that I must have made for the
river, as there was no other place where I could be concealed. When they
came within a couple of hundred yards of it they dismounted, and three
or four came forward on foot. When the nearest was within a hundred
yards of me I fired.
"At so short a distance, and with so good a rest, I could not miss, and
before the smoke cleared away I winged another, and the rest ran back
hastily. I sent a shot or two among them as they were consulting, with
the result that they rode off three or four hundred yards farther back.
They did not attempt to return my fire, for, except when I raised my
head for a moment, they could see nothing of me.
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