Charge! A Story of Briton and Boer

by George Manville Fenn

For answer Joeboy stepped on at once, and for the first time Sandho kicked against a stone, one of his shoes not only giving out a sharp clink, but striking a spark of fire.

It was as if that spark of fire struck by iron off stone had ignited the powder in the pan of an old-fashioned gun; for from close at hand there was a flash, the heavy report, and then a rolling volley of echoes. I felt Sandho bound beneath me; but the next moment he was walking steadily along, following the hand holding his bit, and he paid no more heed when directly after another shot was fired on ahead, another behind, and again another and another, raising what seemed to be a continuous roar of echoes right, left, and in front, to go rolling among the mountains.

The hot blood flew to my face, and a thrill of excitement ran through me as I involuntarily cocked the rifle I held across the saddle, sitting ready to fire at the first enemy who presented himself; in fact, I nearly drew trigger once, but my common-sense prevailed, as I felt that we could not be seen, neither could we be heard in the roar of echoes which took up and magnified the reports. Joeboy was doing exactly what was right under the circumstances—going straight on; and, unless we found a body of men confronting us and stopping our way, or an unlucky bullet struck one of us, it seemed probable that in a very short time we should have achieved our purpose.

I had often heard of Echo Nek before, and had some vague idea that if any one shouted there the tones of his voice would be reverberated from the face of the cliffs; but I had never realised the true reason as I did now.

The firing went steadily on, the Boer outpost being evidently under the impression that their action would drive back the force approaching to get into their country. This being so, the reports increased to an extent that showed plainly enough the presence of a strong body of men, who had been lying inside the valley, ready to hurry forward to the defence of the pass upon an alarm being given.

I now began to wonder how it was that we were not seen through some one of the flashes and hit by bullets sent spattering among the stones among which we wended our way; but none came near. Every now and then I heard a sharp shock against the rock, followed by a pattering downpour of fragments. Every shot struck high above our heads, and at the end of a few minutes, higher still; at which I wondered, till it suddenly occurred to me that Sandho was not climbing higher and higher up the pass, but descending.

All this time Joeboy kept steadily on, apparently as unconcerned as if he were leading the horse home from grazing peacefully away upon the veldt.

I too began to feel more at my ease, for we had gone on so far that there was a strong hope that we might be successful, unless there should prove to be another body lower down the pass. The next minute, though, I felt convinced this could not be the case, for if another body were lower down they would have been firing; or, on second thoughts, I concluded they must have fired first, since the Boers would never conclude that a body of men was leaving their territory.

The firing kept on for a few minutes longer, and then suddenly ceased; while as we proceeded, with Joeboy leading on as fast as Sandho could walk, we could hear voices behind us; men shouting and answering one another, though it was impossible to hear what was said; but it seemed as if they were asking one another what the firing was about, and whether any one had seen the attacking party. Of course this is only what I surmised; but it satisfied me at the time, and I could not help laughing at the waste of powder and lead occasioned by the harmless incident of a spark being struck from a stone by a horse’s foot.

We were soon, however, satisfied about one thing: that we were not being pursued; for there was no more firing, and the voices soon died out as we went steadily on along a rough winding track pretty free from stones.