Part 16 (1/2)

”By Jove, they've started already, so we're in the nick of ti outside the tent, where he was joined by Farney ”What has happened?” he asked an officer, as passing at that moment

”Lucas Meyer has occupied Talana Hill,” was the reply, ”and he is shelling us with six guns Wait a fewout, and you will see how soon they will polish those beggars off!”

Hastily slinging their belts across their shoulders and picking up their rifles and blankets, Jack and his friend saddled their ponies, which had spent the night close by, and cantered out of the cauns, which had already taken up a position

”That was a close one,” exclaimed Jack calmly a moment later, as a shell whizzed just above his head and plunged into the ground behind, where it failed to explode ”A foot lower and it would have knocked hed Farney light-heartedly ”Look at our fellows! They are giving our friends over there a good peppering”

Jack turned to watch the British guns, of which there were twelve, and then directed the field-glasses which he had purchased in Ladyshts of the Talana Hill There he could see six cannon belching forth sharp spirts of fla used

As he looked, the British batteries spoke out, and the reports were followed by a succession of blinding flashes close by the Boer guns

For twenty minutes the storm of shell continued to fall, and by that tiuns stood unattended

By now the troops had poured out of the camp, and while so's Royal Rifles, a gallant corps commonly known as the 60th, the Dublin Fusiliers, and the Royal Irish Fusiliers, both regi Irishle-call, and formed up for the attack Smart, bold fellows they all looked too, clad in their khaki uniforms, with belts, helmets, and buttons all of the same mud-colour And true heroes they were soon to prove the out the ”Advance”, and in open order they set off for Talana Hill across a wide, sweeping plain, almost completely devoid of cover, and shortly to be swept by a murderous hail of Mauser bullets directed by unseen hands

At thisfrouns was sent against theh we meant to clear that hill!” exclaimed Farney excitedly ”What shall we do, Somerton? Leave our horses and follow them, or stay where we are for a ti to the Hussar officer who had befriended thealloped up at that moment

”Look here, Preston,” Farney called out ”Somerton and I want to have a hand in this battle What shall we do?”

”If you will take my advice,” Preston answered, ”you will join us The chances are you would be in the way over there with the regulars, and your ponies would certainly be picked off We are going to form over by the shoulder of the hill, and when our boys have set the beggars running, ill gallop round and break them up There will be some fun in it, and you ly Jack and Lord O'Farnel joined the Hussars and a body of iments and by the Dublin Fusiliers

Jack was mounted on Prince, and had left Vic behind, as it was unlikely that he would require tworegian to whistle past theain soround But undeterred, with never a backward glance or a thought of flinching, the three British regiments pushed forward, the nonchalance and absolute coolness of thefield-day at ho Valley, and as if sure that, within a certain tiiven number of miles, they would return to camp, and to a comfortable dinner which would await thearettes, and joked and called to one another as they advanced, but for all that, beneath all their dogged pluck and coolness, there was a certain restlessness, a nervous grasp of the rifle, and a keen look in their eyes which told that they had braced the, not even thoughts of sweethearts and wives and children at ho the slopes of the hill in front of theht

”By Jove, it's fine to see the of pride in his voice ”Look at them now! They have opened out, and the foree of the hill Ah, now they are giving it to theular and well delivered Look at the up the hill, and ! Ah! ould now dare to say that my countryuards at home, but they are the scum of Irishmen, while these soldiers are real, brave boys!”

By this tiialloped up to closer range, and were now pouring in a hail of shrapnel at the puffs of flame which told where the Boeradvantage of every stone and boulder, or bravely facing the hail where no cover existed, and froe of bullets was kept up at the heights above

And behind the line, with no tieons and the bearers of the Ar dressings, and carrying the poor felloith a coolness and bravery which radually creeping up the hill, and were noithin 300 yards of the summit, where they lay down, and poured in murderous volleys at the Boers, while a few feet overhead a succession of screast the boulders a fewdeath-dealing bullets on every side

Gallantly did our brave fellows fight, and gallantly too did the Boer marksmen prove their devotion to their country Struck down on every side, they still stuck to their posts, and in those last few minutes added numbers to our list of dead and wounded

But British pluck, whether bred in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Wales, or indeed in any of our colonies, was not to be gainsaid With a roaring cheer and the shrill notes of the ”charge” sounding along the hill, the British fixed bayonets, sprang to their feet, andto fire, but trusting to reach the ene death of all

But the Boers did not wait for them Those that had held so stubbornly to the crest of the hill had performed their allotted task, for they had enabled their couns and retreat in order; and now, springing from behind the boulders, they darted down the other side, a mark for the bullets of our soldiers

Meanwhile the two hundred cavalry hom Jack and Farney had thrown in their lot had been quietly walking their horses round the shoulder of the hill As the infantry lay down for the last tiave the order to trot, and the little colu carriage trundling along in the centre Arrived in sight of the reverse side of the hill, they halted for a few ht of the Boers Already they were retiring in ones and twos, but a minute later they cae! At them, my lads!” came in quick, sharp tones, and in a second the horse pell-mell across the open space