It ran as follows: "The armoured train captured; its fifteen occupants all killed.[25] Boers opened fire on the train with field artillery." In our isolation these words sank into our souls like lead, and were intensified by the fact that we had that very morning been so near the scene of the tragedy--"reverse" I would not allow it to be called, for fifteen men had tried conclusions with 400 Boers, and had been merely hopelessly outnumbered.

The latter had, however, scored an initial success, and the intelligence cast a gloom, even where all was blackest night.

Vellum brought a few more verbal details, to the effect that Sergeant Matthews had actually succeeded in stopping the armoured train after pursuing it on horseback for some way, expecting every moment to be taken for a Boer and fired on.

He asked to speak to the officer in charge, and a young man put his head over the truck.

Matthews then told him that several hundred Boers were awaiting the train, strongly entrenched, and that the metals were up for about three-quarters of a mile.