two o'clock in the morning before
They started at once , and after an hour 's fast riding arrived at the point assigned to them . Twenty men and an officer were at once sent to the farmhouse . They took with them three tents which they had brought in the regimental waggon , and erected these some fifty yards from the house ; the rest of the troop established their camp at a point indicated by a staff officer a quarter of a mile away . It had been two o'clock in the morning before the convoy had reached Springfield , and horses and men were alike tired out ; and as soon as breakfast had been prepared and eaten most of the troopers turned in to sleep . Chris and half a dozen of his party , however , obtained leave from Captain Brookfield to ascend Mount Alice and see what was going on . From half-past five a tremendous fire had been kept up on the Boer positions . The naval guns were distributing their heavy lyddite shells among the entrenchments distant from three to six miles , and occasionally throwing up a missile on to the summit of the lofty hill known as Spion Kop away to the left front .