The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-03

Pass it round quicker than you'd pass the
bottle.
He uttered the concluding words to
Thring the surgeon, whs had been serving
ammunition to the fighters from the first.
Time after time he had rushed TO the mag
aZine and laid violent hands upon the
cartridges. and in the heaviest OF the mr.
ing and thickest of the fight had gone
courageously about his urprofessional
business. No man ran greater danger, and
yet the surgeon came by no hurt. In the
interval, when the Zulus We're re- forming
out of gunShot. he had done what ne could
for the wounded but now he had left them
and was hard at work with he ammuni-
ton cases. He longed to use a rifle him
self but knew that he was Infinitely better
employed as he was now. in running be-
tween the fighting line and the magazine,
seeing that the pouches were kept full.
If the Zuus fought with fury in their
first attack they stroVe with frenzy now.
In the earlier fight at the Little Hand they
had seen men 20 down like stones. each
one in his place. This their own best war
riors said, and these white men at the
Drift were dying just as hard. There was
no leapng over grain bag or biscuit box
no crawling under the wagon no bursting
through the broken furniture that looked
so frail no piercing that living. writhing
bank of bearded men, each one of whom
was grimy with the battle smoke, reeking
with the sweat Of action, and most of
whom were warm with trickling blood If
a black crawlel through the wagon he was
shot or bayoneted before he could regain
his feet inside the barricade If one, with
mad and reckless leap, bounded on to the
top of the obstacle, he was hurled back,
dead or sOrely wounded, among his fell
lows. The more they fought and leaped,
the swifter they rushed. the speedier they
dropped and the deeper grew the barricade
of bodies.
At last, with one resistIess charge. an
arm of the enormous surging mass broke
through the defence, beat down a section
of the barricade, and by weight of human
flesh and bone was forced into an actual
collision with the soldiers. hfuzZes spat
fire into the very faces Of the foes: but
they, regardless Of the death which biazed
Ia,nn them, Surged up until they touched
the CORY steel itself. Then they tried to
wrench the bayonets from the rifles. and
two g. three were torn away with bleeding
hands.
Railton saw a Zulu who had grasped
bayonet and had struck aside the rifle as
the bullet whistled from II, lift his knob
kerrie to strike the soldier ON the head.
He rushed up just in time to crash his
rife on the dark. fierce face, then hurried
back TO where the foe had made an entry.
With Barran. Howard, and Thring-for
a this supreme crisis Thring also had
snatched rifle and was dealing blows be-
yond the healing of the art he practiced-
Railton contested. every foot of the
ground: but, all the time he cried that
they were holding their own, he knew that
step by step they were being forced upon
and into the adjacent buildings and that
the end for all was very near.
The senior subaltern. stunned by a blow
fell to the ground under the very feet OF
the savageg. Railton seized him and drag
ged him to the door of one of the rooms in
which the sick lay. and opening it, he
pushed the unconscious man inside. Get
into the building, too he shouted; we
can do no more good here
Those who heard him obeyed II he
had been their own commanding officer.
The Assistant Commissary was the last to
seek the refuge OF the doorway. He then
dashed in, slammed the door, and threw
himself against it. An assegai was driven