"Wait until they come nearer," replied an older burgher close by.

Silence was maintained for several minutes, when the youth again became uneasy.

"I can hit the first one of those Lancers," he begged, as he pointed with his carbine to a cavalryman known to the Boers as a "Lancer," whether he carried a lance or not.

The cannon in the south urged the cavalrymen forward with a few shells delivered a short distance behind them, and then the old burgher called to the youth, "See if you can hit him now." The boy missed the rider but killed the horse, and the British force quickly dismounted and sought shelter in a small ravine.

The reports of volley firing followed, and bullets cut the grass beside the burghers and flattened themselves against the rocks.