Saxonstowe, lying on a waterproof sheet on the floor of his tent, was writing on a board propped up in front of him. All that he wrote was by way of expressing his wonder, over and over again, that Cronje should hold out so long against the hell of fire which was playing in and around his last refuge. He was trying to realise what must be going on in the river bed, and the thought made him sick. Near him, writing on an upturned box, was another special correspondent who shared the tent with him; outside, polishing tin pannikins because he had nothing else to do, was a Cockney lad whom these two had picked up in Ladysmith and had attached as body-servant. He was always willing and always cheerful, and had a trick of singing snatches of popular songs in a desultory and disconnected way. His raucous voice came to them under the booming of the guns.
/p ‘Ow, ’ee’s little but ’ee’s wise, ’Ee’s a terror for ’is size, An’ ’ee does not hadvertise: Do yer, Bobs?’ p/
‘What a voice that chap has!’ said Saxonstowe’s companion. ‘It’s like a wheel that hasn’t been oiled for months!’
/p ‘Will yer kindly put a penny in my little tambourine, For a gentleman in khaki ordered sou-outh?’ p/
‘They have a saying in Yorkshire,’ remarked Saxonstowe, ‘to the effect that it’s a poor heart that never rejoices.’
‘This chap must have a good ’un, then,’ said the other. Give us a pipeful of tobacco, will you, Saxonstowe? Lord! will those guns never stop?’
/p ‘For the colonel’s lady and Judy O’Grady, Are sisters hunder their skins,’ p/
‘Will our vocalist never stop?’ said Saxonstowe, handing over his pouch. ‘He seems as unconcerned as if he were on a Bank Holiday.’
/p ‘We wos as ’appy as could be, that dye, Dahn at the Welsh ’Arp, which is ’Endon--’ p/
The raucous voice broke off suddenly; the close-cropped Cockney head showed at the open flap of the tent.
‘Beg pardon, sir,’ said the Cockney voice, ‘but I fink there’s somethin’ ’appened, sir--guns is dyin’ orf, sir.’
Saxonstowe and his fellow scribe sprang to their feet. The roar of the cannon was dying gradually away, and it suddenly gave place to a strange and an awful silence.
Saxonstowe walked hither and thither about the bed of the river, turning his head jerkily to right and left.