CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
HOW I USED MY CARTRIDGES.
It was a strange experience for one who had come fresh from a home life; and in the intervals of tiring I could not help wondering whether it was not all a dream.

The reality, however, forced itself on me too strongly as the light went on, the spaces about the stones being literally littered with battered bullets which had assumed all kinds of strange shapes after coming in contact with the stones--flat, mushroom-shaped, twisted, the conical points struck off diagonally, and the like; but we were so sheltered that if the Boers fired low we were unhurt, and if they fired high their shots went over among comrades.

Signals were now made from above and below, with the result that the attacking party coming down the pass divided, to line the sides of the place as far as they could, so that their shots crossed our defences, and the attacking party from below followed their old tactics; thus our defences were swept by a cross-fire, and fewer Boers fell by the bullets of their friends.

But these movements on the part of the Boers had brought them better within range of our pieces, for they were more exposed upon climbing up the slopes; and I had plain evidence of the loss they sustained.
At last night began to fall, and the firing of the attacking force, dropped off.

It was plain that the Boers were retiring, possibly disheartened by their heavy losses.