ns and much ammunition. On the 20th he
again made large captures. If in the early phases of the war the Boers
had given Paul Methuen some evil hours, he was certainly getting his own
back again. At the same time Clements was despatched from Pretoria with
a small mobile force for the purpose of clearing the Rustenburg and
Krugersdorp districts, which had always been storm centres. These two
forces, of Methuen and of Clements, moved through the country, sweeping
the scattered Boer bands before them, and hunting them down until they
dispersed. At Kekepoort and at Hekspoort Clements fought successful
skirmishes, losing at the latter action Lieutenant Stanley of the
Yeomanry, the Somersetshire cricketer, who showed, as so many have done,
how close is the connection between the good sportsman and the
good soldier. On the 12th Douglas took thirty-nine prisoners near
Lichtenburg. On the 18th Rundle captured a gun at Bronkhorstfontein.
Hart at Potchefstroom, Hildyard in the Utrecht district, Macdonald in
the Orange River Colony, everywhere the British Generals were busily
stamping out the remaining embers of what had been so terrible a
conflagration.

Much trouble but no great damage was inflicted upon the British during
this last stage of the war by the incessant attacks upon the lines of
railway by roving bands of Boers. The actual interruption of traffic
was of little consequence, for the assiduous Sappers with their gangs of
Basuto labourers were always at hand to repair the break. But the loss
of stores, and occasionally of lives, was more serious. Hardly a day
passed that the stokers and drivers were not made targets of by snipers
among the kopjes, and occasionally a train was entirely destroyed.
[Footnote: It is to be earnestly hoped that those in authority will see
that these men obtain the medal and any other reward which can mark our
sense of their faithful service. One of them in the Orange River Colony,
after narrating to me his many hairbreadth escapes, prophesied bitterly
that the memory of his services would pass with the need for them.]
Chief among these raiders was the wild Theron, who led a band which
contained men of all nations--the same gang who had already, as
narrated, held up a train in the Orange River Colony. On August 31st he
derailed another at Flip River to the south of Johannesburg, blowing up
the engine and burning thirteen trucks. Almost at the same time a train
was captured near Kroonstad, which