Wrap the long lean muzzle round with a collar of
gun-cotton!
Keep the guard upon the run until the work is done!
Hunter stood by with a night light in his hand until the charge was
in position, and then, with a crash which brought both armies from
their tents, the huge tube reared up on its mountings and toppled
backwards into the pit. A howitzer lurked beside it, and this also
was blown into ruin. The attendant Maxim was dragged back by the
exultant captors, who reached the town amid shoutings and laughter
with the first break of day. One man wounded, the gallant
Henderson, is the cheap price for the best-planned and most dashing
exploit of the war. Secrecy in conception, vigour in
execution - they are the root ideas of the soldier's craft. So
easily was the enterprise carried out, and so defective the Boer
watch, that it is probable that if all the guns had been
simultaneously attacked the Boers might have found themselves
without a single piece of ordnance in the morning. [Footnote: The
destruction of the Creusot was not as complete as was hoped. It was
taken back to Pretoria, three feet were sawn off the muzzle, and a
new breech-block provided. The gun was then sent to Kimberley, and
it was the heavy cannon which arrived late in the history of that
siege and caused considerable consternation among the inhabitants.]
On the same morning (December 9th) a cavalry reconnaissance was
pushed in the direction of Pepworth Hill.
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