The Kopje Garrison: A Story of the Boer War

Matters looked anything but hopeful at Groenfontein, though the men were full of spirits and eager to respond to any of the attacks made by the Boers, who, with three commandos,...

The wounded men--a couple of dozen all told, many of the injuries being only slight--were rapidly lifted into the light wagons while the horses and mules were given water, and a...

On and on at the ponies' slow walk through the short scrub or over the bare plain, with the clever little animals seeming to instinctively avoid every stone that was invisible t...

It seemed to Drew Lennox that he was staring helplessly at the dark shadowy shape for quite a minute--but it was only a matter of a few seconds--before, snatching his left hand...

As a rule, the garrison at Groenfontein after the posting of the watch settled itself down for a quiet night's rest, for experience had taught that there was very little to fear...

The searchers' way was now a narrow crack such as might have been formed by some mighty convulsion of nature which tore apart a gigantic mass of stone, the fracture running here...

"Look here, Roby," said Dickenson, three or four days later, when, having a little time on his hands--the Boers, consequent upon their late defeat, having been very quiet--he we...

The effects of the night alarm were dying out, for there was plenty to take the attention of the defenders of Groenfontein every day--days full of expectancy--for a Boer attack...

They did not look like fishermen, those two young men in khaki, for people do not generally go fishing with magazine-rifles instead of fishing-rods--certainly not in England. Bu...

Dickenson uttered a grunt, and, paying no further heed to the bullets that kept on spattering about the rocks, every now and then striking up a shower of loose stones, waited, p...

The party at the head of the cavern stood for a few moments perfectly motionless, listening to the dying away of the strange gurglings and whispering echoes which followed the h...

But the Boers had received so severe a lesson that they did leave the garrison severely alone for nearly a month, save that there were often sharp encounters between patrols and...

It was a narrow escape, but the nine men got safely back to quarters, but minus two of their horses. For the Boers had in every case been well upon the alert; their lines had no...

"One ought to lay him in the shade," he thought; but there was very little that he could do beyond drawing a few pieces of the thorn bush together to hang over his face. He then...

The horse's neigh was hailed with satisfaction by the officers, for it proved that they were going right; and soon after, this idea was endorsed and there was no more doubt as t...

"Neither of us," said Drew gravely. "It was the work of one of your fellows; he fell from up there. But what about the party who crossed by the ford?"

There was a splendid supply of corn in the great woven Kaffir baskets, and that and the captured flock of sheep did wonders; but there were many hungry mouths to feed, and the l...

There were too many "alarums and excursions" at Groenfontein for much more thought to be bestowed upon the friendly Boers, as the party of former prisoners were termed, in the d...

Dickenson walked frowning away from the hospital hut, thinking of the manner in which Roby had shifted the charge of cowardice from his shoulders to Lennox's, and a sigh of mise...

"Forward!" said a wonderfully exact echo from the pit, and the cavern chamber seemed to burst into strange, echoing repetitions of the confused trampling and rushing and thunder...

The men forgot their thirst in the excitement of the incident, and as soon as Lennox showed signs of recovering a little from the state of exhaustion in which he lay, every one...

Bob Dickenson's jaw dropped as he stood staring for some moments at the corporal--as if he could not quite believe his ears. It seemed to him that this had something to do with...

It was a weird march in the silence and darkness, but the men were as elastic of spirits as if they had been on their way to some festivity. There may have been some exceptions,...

"Thoughts, dear boy. Only thinking of what a lark it would be if he began bullying one of our prisoners--say Blackbeard--and the savage old Boer slipped into him with his fists....

Burdened as the little party was with an insensible man, escape by trusting to the speed of their active little mounts was quite out of the question; and, young officer though h...

It was about an hour later, when the wounded had been seen to by the surgeon--who reported very favourably on the men, whose injuries were for the most part the result of blows...

"Why, Roby!" cried Lennox, after standing for some moments gazing wildly at his brother officer, and then going close up to his rough resting-place. "For goodness' sake, don't t...

The next minute, after a glance at Dickenson, who was sleeping peacefully enough, Lennox was following the sergeant, whose dim lantern shed a curious-looking halo in the black d...

Lennox was well enough, when the sun was up, to accompany Dickenson to the examination of the scene of the explosion, but not in time to witness the discovery of two bags of une...

Dickenson dashed off and climbed the low kopje, zigzagging among rough stone walls, rifle-pits, and other shelter, and noting that, if the Boers came upon them before they could...

It was to this village and kopje, turned after its long occupation into what proved to be an impregnable stronghold--one which so far, to the Boers' cost, maintained its promise...

The entrance at last, with the glorious light of the sun shining in, man after man drawing a heavy sighing breath of relief; and as they gathered outside on the shelf where the...

The light of the fired train had hardly flashed before the first sentry who saw it, fired, to be followed by one after another, till the bugles rang out, first one and then anot...

"Silence in the ranks!" cried Lennox sternly as he felt about in the darkness, joined now by his comrade, and found that their charge had been checked by a big gun, its limber,...

It was a couple of days later, when the kopje was dotted with the rough shelters that the uninjured men had worked hard to erect from the ruins of the village, the principal bei...

"If he said that, he's a brute!" cried Dickenson. "Gammon! I don't believe the old man would say such a thing. But look here, I'm precious glad. This means you're going to live...

"It's a bad business, Mr Lennox," said the colonel sternly, some weeks later, when matters looked very dreary again in the camp, for the supplies of provisions had once more beg...

The scouting parties went out in three different directions after a long survey from the top of the kopje, the routes being marked out for the leaders in consultation with the c...

Every one burst into the hurried flow of conversation that now followed the colonel's announcement, the excitement growing at the thought of the dreary siege at last coming to a...