With Roberts to Pretoria: A Tale of The South African War

by G. A. Henty

"Yes, everything is ready for you," and he quickly stepped back until level with the others.

The door was thrown open, and a number of men poured in.

"Turn up the light!" one said, with an oath. "What have you turned it down for? There, shut that door behind you; one of the women may have got a revolver, and we don't want the sound heard. Now, where are—"

"Here," Yorke replied.

He turned up the light, the other three instantly stepped out, and four rifles were fired almost simultaneously. Shrieks, oaths of fury, and heavy falls were heard as Yorke and his companions emptied the magazines of their rifles into the group, and the cracks of Mr. Chambers's revolver joined in the din. Not a shot was fired in return. When the last cartridge had been fired, most of the assailants lay dead in the hall; the men who had last entered, panic-stricken at the sudden outburst of fire, had tried to open the door they had just closed, but the backward rush of the others prevented them from doing so, and it was not until ten had fallen that the other two were able to open the door and fly. Hastily recharging the magazines, Yorke and his two followers ran out, but a moment later they heard the sounds of galloping horses and cracking whips, and knew that pursuit would be futile. However, as they had the names of the owners of the carts, this mattered little, and they returned to the house. Mr. Chambers had at once gone upstairs to assure the ladies that the affair was over, and that none of those in the house had been hurt.

Examining the bodies, they found that most of them had two bullet-wounds and some three, the Mauser bullets having at that short range passed through two or even more bodies. Several were hit in the head, but most of them in the chest.

"That is just as well," Yorke said, when he had ascertained that none of them were breathing. "It will save all further trouble."

At this moment there was a sound of steps outside, and a loud, continuous knocking at the door. Mr. Chambers threw open the window upstairs.

"Who are you?" he asked.