uld show.

On the war breaking out the first thought of the leaders in Rhodesia was
to save as much of the line which was their connection through Mafeking
with the south as was possible. For this purpose an armoured train was
despatched only three days after the expiration of the ultimatum to the
point four hundred miles south of Bulawayo, where the frontiers of the
Transvaal and of Bechuanaland join. Colonel Holdsworth commanded
the small British force. The Boers, a thousand or so in number, had
descended upon the railway, and an action followed in which the
train appears to have had better luck than has usually attended these
ill-fated contrivances. The Boer commando was driven back and a number
were killed. It was probably news of this affair, and not anything
which had occurred at Mafeking, which caused those rumours of gloom
at Pretoria very shortly after the outbreak of hostilities. An agency
telegraphed that women were weeping in the streets of the Boer capital.
We had not then realised how soon and how often we should see the same
sight in Pall Mall.

The adventurous armoured train pressed on as far as Lobatsi, where it
found the bridges destroyed; so it returned to its original position,
having another brush with the Boer commandos, and again, in some
marvellous way, escaping its obvious fate. From then until the new year
the line was kept open by an admirable system of patrolling to within
a hundred miles or so of Mafeking. An aggressive spirit and a power of
dashing initiative were shown in the British operations at this side
of the scene of war such as have too often been absent elsewhere.
At Sekwani, on November 24th, a considerable success was gained by a
surprise planned and carried out by Colonel Holdsworth. The Boer laager
was approached and attacked in the early morning by a force of one
hundred and twenty frontiersmen, and so effective was their fire that
the Boers estimated their numbers at several thousand. Thirty Boers were
killed or wounded, and the rest scattered.

While the railway line was held in this way there had been some
skirmishing also on the northern frontier of the Transvaal. Shortly
after the outbreak of the war the gallant Blackburn, scouting with six
comrades in thick bush, found himself in the presence of a considerable
commando. The British concealed themselves by the path, but Blackburn's
foot was seen by a keen-eyed Kaffir, who pointed it out to his masters.
A sudden volley