Besides
this luxury, we had beautiful fresh tomatoes and young cabbages. The
meat had resolved itself into beef, and beef only, but eggs helped out
the menu, and the only non-existent delicacy was "fresh butter." This
commodity existed in tins, but I must confess the sultry weather had
anticipated the kitchen, in that it usually appeared in a melted state.
The most formidable weapon of the Boers was, naturally, the big siege
Creusot gun. The very first day I arrived in Mafeking "Creechy"
discharged a shell that killed a trooper of the Protectorate Regiment,
who happened to be standing up in the stables singing a song, whilst
four or five others were seated on the ground. The latter were
uninjured, but the dead man was absolutely blown to bits, and one of his
legs was found in the roof. A few days after two more shells landed in
the market-square, one going through the right window of the chemist's
shop, the other demolishing the left-hand one. Some of the staff were
actually in the shop when the second shell came through the window, and
were covered with dust, broken bits of glass, and shattered wood, but
all providentially escaped unhurt. Others were not so fortunate, for a
nigger in the market-square was literally cut in half, and a white man
100 yards away had his leg torn off.
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