been received that the Boers were, when it was sent off, entering
Elandslaagte station, and were in the act of capturing the passenger
train that was standing there. The message stopped abruptly, as no doubt
the Boers entered the room where the clerk was at work at the needles."

"By Jove we are in luck!" Chris said. "Of course that was the train that
had to leave three hours after us. If we had stopped for that, the
horses, rifles, and kit would all have gone, and we should now be
prisoners. It is serious news, though, for it is evident that not only
are they marching against us in front, and on both flanks, but have cut
our communications with Ladysmith. There can be no doubt that, as
everyone said there, it was a mistake to send General Symons forward
here, as it was almost certain that with four regiments, three batteries
of artillery, a regiment of cavalry, and a few hundred of the Natal
police and volunteers, he could never maintain himself here. Why, we
heard at Ladysmith that a column had gone out the day before towards
Besters station, as the news had come in that they were even then in the
neighbourhood. It was a false alarm, but it was enough to show that the
Boers were likely to be coming down and cutting the railway in our rear.
General Symons told me that he did not expect any general advance of the
enemy just yet, because he heard that their transport was incomplete,
and that they were very short of provisions. But I don't think the want
of transport would prevent their advancing. We know well enough that the
Boers think nothing of going out for three or four days without any
prospect of getting any more provisions than they carry about them,
unless they have the luck to bring down an antelope. And as Utrecht and
Vryheid and Newcastle are all within a few miles of us, and the Free
Staters have already come down through some of the passes of the
Drakensberg, they must be within an easy ride of us; and if they are in
force enough to drive us out of this place, they must know they would