It has been often and naturally asked, why did not Colonel Carleton make his way back at once upon the loss of his guns and ammunition, while it was still dark?  One or two considerations are evident.  In the first place, it is natural to a good soldier to endeavour to retrieve a situation rather than to abandon his enterprise.  His prudence, did he not do so, might become the subject of public commendation, but might also provoke some private comment.  A soldier’s training is to take chances, and to do the best he can with the material at his disposal.  Again, Colonel Carleton and Major Adye knew the general plan of the battle which would be raging within a very few hours, and they quite understood that by withdrawing they would expose General White’s left flank to attack from the forces (consisting, as we know now, of the Orange Freestaters and of the Johannesburg Police) who were coming from the north and west.  He hoped to be relieved by eleven, and he believed that, come what might, he could hold out until then.  These are the most obvious of the considerations which induced Colonel Carleton to determine to carry out so far as he could the programme which had been laid down for him and his command.  He marched up the hill and occupied the position.

His heart, however, must have sunk when he examined it.  It was very large—­too large to be effectively occupied by the force which he commanded.  The length was about a mile and the breadth four hundred yards.  Shaped roughly like the sole of a boot, it was only the heel end which he could hope to hold.  Other hills all round offered cover for Boer riflemen.  Nothing daunted, however, he set his men to work at once building sangars with the loose stones.  With the full dawn and the first snapping of Boer Mausers from the hills around they had thrown up some sort of rude defences which they might hope to hold until help should come.

But how could help come when there was no means by which they could let White know the plight in which they found themselves?  They had brought a heliograph with them, but it was on the back of one of those accursed mules.  The Boers were thick around them, and they could not send a messenger.  An attempt was made to convert a polished biscuit tin into a heliograph, but with poor success.  A Kaffir was dispatched with promises of a heavy bribe, but he passed out of history.  And there in the clear cold morning air the balloon hung to the south of them where the first distant thunder of White’s guns was beginning to sound.  If only they could attract the attention of that balloon!  Vainly they wagged flags at it.  Serene and unresponsive it brooded over the distant battle.