RIFLE FIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 65, 17 March 1900, Page 1 (Supplement)

RIFLE FIRE.

'THE DEVILS TIN TACK.3."

When nil is said, there is nothing to stir tin- blod like rifle-lire. Riflefire wins or loses decisive actions; rifle-fire sends the heart galloping.

'At live in the morning- of the Oth I turned on my mattress and heard guns; 1 got up.

Then I heard the bubble of distant musketry, and I hurried out.

It came from the north, and it was languidly echoed from Caesar's Camp. Tack-tap, tack-tap—each shot echoed a little muffled from the hills. Tacktap, tack-tap, tack, tack, ta.ek, lack, tap —as if the devil was hammering nails into (he hills. Then a hurricane of tacking, running round all Ladysmith, running together into ■ n

scrunching1 roar. From the hill above Mulberry-grove you can. .see every shell drop; but of this there was no sign—only noise and furious heartbeats.

I went out to the strongest tiring. and toiled up a ladder of. boulders I came upon to the sky line, and bent and stole forward.

To the right was Cave Redoubt with the 4.7; to the left two field guns,

UNLIMBEKED AND LEFT ALONE, and some of the Rifle Brigade snug behind their stone and earth schanzes.

In front was the low, woody, stony crest of Observation Hill; behind was the tall table-top of Surprise Hill — the first ours, the second the enemy's.

Under the slope oil Observation Hill were long, dark lines of horses; up to the sky lines, prolonging the front leftward, stole half a dozen ojC