But this
sort of injury to a railway is very speedily set right. In an hour or
two a party of sappers can relay a long stretch of line if no culverts
or bridges are destroyed. Mishaps to the telegraph are still more easily
repaired, and already, side by side with the wreckage of the original
wires, the piebald posts of the field telegraph service ran all along
the lines of communication.
Here and there Kaffir families sat squatting about their primitive huts,
or kept watch over flocks of goats and sheep. Ostriches stalked solemnly
up to the railway and gazed at the train, and sometimes their curiosity
cost them the loss of a few tail feathers if we could get a snatch at
them through the wire railings. On one occasion a soldier attempting to
take this liberty with an ostrich was turned upon by the indignant bird,
and a struggle ensued which might have proved serious to the man; he
was, however, lucky enough to get a grip on the creature's neck and
succeeded by a great effort in killing it. Ordinarily, however, the
ostriches, despite an occasional surrender of tail feathers, lived on
terms of amity with our men, and at Belmont they were to be seen walking
about the camp and concealing their curiosity under a great show of
dignity. During the fight one of these birds took up its quarters with a
battery, and watched the whole battle without taking any food, except
that on one occasion when a man lit his pipe the bird suddenly reached
out for the box of lucifers and swallowed it with great gusto.
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