unct than a horse. At six o'clock on the
morning of the 27th came the end. Two Boers appeared in front of the
advancing line of the Imperial Light Horse and held up a flag. They
proved to be Truter and De Jager, ready to make terms for their
commando. The only terms offered were absolute surrender within the
hour. The Boers had been swept into a very confined space, which was
closely hemmed in by troops, so that any resistance must have ended in a
tragedy. Fortunately there was no reason for desperate councils in their
case, since they did not fight as Lotter had done, with the shadow of
judgment hanging over him. The burghers piled arms, and all was over.

The total number captured in this important drive was 780 men, including
several leaders, one of whom was De Wet's own son. It was found that
De Wet himself had been among those who had got away through the picket
lines on the night of the 23rd. Most of the commando were Transvaalers,
and it was typical of the wide sweep of the net that many of them were
the men who had been engaged against the 28th Mounted Infantry in the
district south of Johannesburg upon the 12th of the same month. The loss
of 2000 horses and 50,000 cartridges meant as much as that of the men to
the Boer army. It was evident that a few more such blows would clear the
Orange River Colony altogether.

The wearied troopers were allowed little rest, for in a couple of days
after their rendezvous at Harrismith they were sweeping back again to
pick up all that they had missed. This drive, which was over the same
ground, but sweeping backwards towards the Heilbron to Wolvehoek line,
ended in the total capture of 147 of the enemy, who were picked out of
holes, retrieved from amid the reeds of the river, called down out of
trees, or otherwise collected. So thorough were the operations that it
is recorded that the angle which formed the apex of the drive was one
drove of game upon the last day, all the many types of antelope, which
form one of the characteristics and charms of the country, having been
herded into it.

More important even than the results of the drive was the discovery of
one of De Wet's arsenals in a cave in the Vrede district. Half-way down
a precipitous krantz, with its mouth covered by creepers, no writer of
romance could have imagined a more fitting headquarters for a guerilla
chief. The find was made by Ross's Canadian Scouts, who celebrated
Dominion Day by this most useful achievem