Near Dordrecht, too, which had been occupied by General Brabant, the Colonial forces were performing prodigious feats of pluck. They forced the rebels to abandon the country between Dordrecht and Penhoek. During the attack on a Boer laager on the 16th, Trooper Drysdale bravely rushed to the succour of Sergeant Weinecke under a close and heavy fire and carried him off to a place of safety. The young Colonial was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in recognition of the valorous deed. Unfortunately two gallant officers--Captain Crallah and Lieutenant Chandler--were killed. Curiously enough, when the Boers and British became acquainted with each other they grew friendly with great rapidity. When Captain Longhurst, R.A.M.C., from Arundel, was attending wounded Australians, he remarked on the exceeding kindness of the enemy to the wounded. He also fraternised with the Boer commander, and discovered they had mutual friends in London. The "Tommies" chatted most amicably with the Boers, notwithstanding the fact that their bandoliers were filled with soft-nosed bullets. To account for their having them, the Boers said, "We must use whatever we can get." It was suggested that their ammunition--since they were of the northern district--had been obtained for the purpose of hunting big game at the Limpopo. This excuse the "Tommies" accepted, and one wounded in the thigh said good-humouredly, "Well, I wish you'd been kind enough to hit me lower down." Another informed a Boer that the British had specially come to deliver them out of the House of Bondage. The Boer was sceptical, whereon "Tommy" enlightened him. "Africander bondage," he explained, with a wink of the eye. The moral effect of the relief of Kimberley soon became obvious. Barkly West was occupied by troops on the 21st of February, and there was evidence that the country west of Cape Colony and Kimberley was gradually settling down. On the same day, General Brabant occupied Jamestown, some twenty miles north of Dordrecht, and seized quantities of horses belonging to the enemy, who in their retreat modestly had recourse to "Shank's pony." During a reconnaissance of the Boer position at Stormberg, a party of scouts under Captain Montmorency, V.C., got within some fifty yards of the enemy, and a fierce and fatal combat ensued, which resulted in the sad loss of one of the most brilliant officers of the day.