What
struck me most forcibly was that, in carrying out these achievements,
Colonel Baden-Powell had been lucky enough to find instruments, in the
way of experienced men, ready to his hand. One officer was proficient in
bomb-proofs, the postmaster thoroughly understood telephones, while
another official had proved himself an expert in laying mines. The area
to be defended had a perimeter of six miles; but, in view of the
smallness of the garrison and the overwhelming number of the Boers, it
was fortunate the authorities had been bold and adventurous enough to
extend the trenches over this wide space, instead of following the old
South African idea of going into laager in the market-square, which had
been the first suggestion. The town was probably saved by being able to
present so wide a target for the Boer artillery, and although we were
then, and for the next few weeks, cut off from all communication with
the outer world, even by nigger letter-carriers, and in spite of bullets
rattling and whizzing through the market-square and down the
side-streets, the Boer outposts were gradually being pushed away by our
riflemen in their invisible pits. While on this subject, I must mention
that a day spent in those trenches was anything but an agreeable one.
Parties of six men and an officer occupied them daily before dawn, and
remained there eighteen hours, as any attempt to leave would have meant
a hail of bullets from the enemy, distant only about 600 yards.
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