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276 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
were
laid around the town. The prohibiting order carried this warning, "
These mines are at all times ' live,' that is, the fuses and firing
arrangements are so arranged that the mines can be fired either
automatically or by observation, and they might under certain
circumstances be ignited by the enemy's shells." This order should have
frightened the average Kimberley urchin, but its apparent effect was to
make him all the more eager, for
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he
seemed to think that he had a chance of finding a prize in one of those
dynamite mines about which everybody was talking. As the siege dragged
along, some of the Imperial officers began to grow impatient.
Anticipating the approach of Lord Methuen, they planned a sortie on the
25th of November which was fairly successful; for they took Carter's
Ridge, some three miles to the west of Kimberley, and captured
thirty-three Boers, including nine wounded. The fighting continued all
day, and resulted in a loss to the garrison of six killed and
twenty-nine wounded, including Colonel Scott-Turner, and Captains Bowen
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