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 appeared to indicate that the great De Wet was back in his old hunting-grounds.