"Right, sir," cried the Sergeant. "Cold steel's the thing. I've always been a cavalry man, and I've seen a bit of service before I came into the Light Horse as drill-sergeant and general trainer. I've been through a good deal, and learned a good deal; and I tell you two young men that many a time in a fight I've felt wild sitting on horseback here, and trotting off there, dismounting to rest our horses; finding ourselves under fire again, and cantering off somewhere else--into a valley, behind a hill, or to the shelter of a wood, because our time hadn't come--and the infantry working away all the while. I'm not going to run down the cavalry; they're splendid in war when they can get their chance to come to close quarters. You see, we haven't done much with our swords, for the Doppies won't stand a charge. Where we've had them has been dismounted, as riflemen, and that's what our trouble is now. We can't get at the enemy; what we want is a regiment of foot with the bayonet. Just a steady advance under such cover as they could find, and then a sharp run in with a good old British cheer, and the Doppies would begin to run. Then we ought to be loosed at them, and every blessed Boer among them would make up his mind that it was quite time he went home to see how his crops are getting on." "Yes, Sergeant," said Denham gravely; "that's exactly the way to do it, and that's what people at home are saying. But we're shut up here, ammunition is failing, and we have no regiment of foot to give the brutes the cold steel and make them run; so what's the best thing to do under the circumstances?" CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT. THE SERGEANT'S NOTION. "Ah!" said the Sergeant, tapping the ashes out of his pipe and refilling it; "that's a bit of a puzzle, sir." "Hang out the white flag?" cried Denham bitterly. "No, sir," cried the Sergeant fiercely. "What then?" I said. "What then, sir?" said Briggs fiercely. "We've got plenty of pluck and lots of fight in the boys." "Yes," said Denham, with his eyes flashing. "Plenty of prime beef and good fresh water, Briggs; but scarcely any cartridges." "That's right, sir; and so I took the liberty, when I got a chance, of saying a word to the Colonel." "What about?" "The Doppies' ammunition-wagons, sir." "Ah!" cried Denham, rising to his elbow. "I ventured to say, sir, that the young officer as brought in our supply of provisions would have laid himself flat down on the top o' the wall and watched with his glass till he had made out where the best spot was, and then after dark he'd have gone out and made a try to capture one of the ammunition-wagons, and brought it in." "Impossible, Sergeant," said Denham. "Bah! That word isn't in a soldier's dictionary, sir. You'd have done it if you'd been well enough." "But the cartridges mightn't fit our rifles, Sergeant."