We learnt later that a similar system had been adopted in Kimberley as a protection against _Long Tom_, and hence the small number of killed during the siege. One of the first victims of _Long Tom_, however, was the engineer of the _Long Cecil_, who had just finished his work. A shell burst on his house and killed him in his bedroom. Another cause of the slight mortality on both sides was the bad quality of the fuses for the projectiles, which often burst imperfectly, or not at all. Thus, one of the English shells fell in the machinery of the waterworks, only a few inches from our reserve of a hundred shells, and happily failed to explode. Another went through a cast-iron pipe, over a centimetre thick, and buried itself in the earth without exploding; its fuse was completely flattened on the projectile by contact with the pipe. Nevertheless, a good many, too many indeed, _did_ burst with satisfactory results--to those who fired them. A good many of the Boers accordingly took the precaution of digging a sort of tomb several feet deep, in which they piled mattresses and blankets. They spent all night and part of the day lying in this shelter. On Saturday morning, on arriving at the battery, we were surprised by a whistling sound. The English, harassed by the fire of _Long Tom_, had dug trenches during the night to a distance of about 1,200 yards, and had manned them with riflemen. Their fire was not yet very galling, because of the distance between us. Colonel de Villebois, seeing clearly what would happen, renewed his request for a party of men. He now only asked for twenty-five to make an assault that very night, for he pointed out that the _shanjes_ (trenches) would be pushed forward during the night, and that our battery would become untenable. But he was repulsed by the eternal ’Wait a little while!’ Long convoys of Kaffirs that the English could no longer feed came out of the town every day, preceded by huge white flags. Some were allowed to pass after a parley, others were sent back again. The Colonel feared that an attempt would be made against _Long Tom_ by night, as a sequel to the offensive movement on the part of the garrison indicated by the making of the trenches. Everyone goes to spend the night at the battery, and we take the opportunity of firing at the town. It proves to be merely a pastime. The English reply, but do not attack us.