The Boers, turned back from their grand emplacements and cleverly constructed trenches, were forced to follow their plan of splitting into two forces, one taking the direction of Kruger's Post, the other going to Pilgrim's Rest, where the President was said to have gone. But still, though retiring, other marauding bands had found leisure to prowl in the region of the railway, for on the 5th, both morn and eve were made hideous by their murderous ingenuity. At dawn they attempted to cut the line between Pan and Wonderfontein, but the Canadian Mounted Rifles briskly blazed on the raiders, and though there were but 125 of the British against a horde of Dutchmen with two guns and a pom-pom, they contrived to rout the enemy without needing the assistance of Colonel Mahon, who was promptly sent to their succour. "A very creditable performance," telegraphed the Chief, who was well pleased with the smartness of Major Sanders and his men. The Major and Lieutenant Moodie were slightly wounded, and several men were injured and taken prisoners. At night a train between Belfast and Pretoria was derailed owing to the engine being blown up with dynamite, but nevertheless the "Tommies" who were in the train gathered themselves together with amazing rapidity, and drove off the Boers who were hovering like expectant vultures round what they hoped would be a scene of blood. To return to Lydenburg. The town lies within the hollow of a gigantic mountainous range, which frowns some 1500 feet above it. Its aspect, foliaged and green, with running brooks rippling in every direction, delighted the hearts of the wayworn troops. Grateful to every eye, after the monotonous drab of sun-dried veldt, was the sight of its blue gum-trees and verdurous gardens; refreshing to the long parched and heated senses, the babble of many pellucid streams! Here at last, they thought, was a haven of rest, and here on the 7th, when Generals Buller and Ian Hamilton had joined hands, the Union Jack was hoisted with resonant cheers. But the joy was of short duration. Scarcely had the strains of "God Save the Queen" died away than the Boers from the region of Spitz Kop, a formidable hill some twenty-five miles east, to which Botha with all his big guns had retreated, celebrated the occasion by firing into the town, and that despite the fact that it contained some thirty burghers' families! Now it became evident that the troops must face the prodigious task of clearing the Boer positions--natural fortresses they may be called--above Lydenburg and beyond it--a task for which the heroes of Pieter's and Laing's Nek were well fitted. It was a curious fact that to the share of these warriors fell the opening and the closing scenes of an arduous campaign, a dramatic fact like the working of a stage play, which takes care that all the prominent characters of the piece shall say their last say before the falling of the curtain.