A small tin house at the station was used as a hospital, and a Red Cross flag was improvised with difficulty. It was composed of a pillow-case with red bands made from strips of a Kaffir blanket discovered in the house. This was mounted on the shaft of an uptilted cart, but the Boers affected not to comprehend its meaning, and sent in a man under a white flag to ask an explanation. Here the wounded were tended by Mr. Cheatle who, by a stroke of luck, happened to occupy a saloon carriage in the "held up" train. There was no other doctor. This well-known surgeon who had gone out, _con amore_, as it were, with Sir William MacCormac, was on his way home, thinking his errand of mercy was over. He came quickly in action again, bringing his brilliant wits to meet a somewhat desperate situation. His bandages were made from ladies' under garments found in a wardrobe, from the bed sheets in the train, and for antiseptic powder he had recourse to the carbolic tooth-powder in the possession of some of the officers. When this came to an end he utilised boiled rags, and persistently attended to the nerve-shaken wounded, who all the time were torn with bodily agony and horror-stricken by the continual howling of shells against walls and ground. [Illustration: AUSTRALIAN BUSHMEN ON THE MARCH Drawing by Allan Stewart, from details supplied by Surgeon Captain Watt, New Zealand Roughriders] Meanwhile the Boers plied their guns, shelling at the same time from north and east--an antiphonal duet of most appalling description. One shell broke through the saloon carriage, another buried itself in some bales of wool which luckily protected the verandah of the hospital. To this the only return that could be made was a persistent peppering with the ancient Martinis, a peppering which was carried on for several hours. The officers worked hard with their Mauser carbines. The one before quoted said he fired off fifty-five rounds, but did not know with what result, except that some Boers, exposing themselves on the sky line, very quickly got down flat on the grass after he had taken a "steady pot" at them at about 1400 yards' distance. He went on to say: "The Boers must have known how we were armed, as it is quite against their custom to expose themselves at all. At last we saw some men coming over the hill to our right, and thought it was the relief force, but they turned out to be Boers in khaki, some of whom, I believe, had helmets, probably taken from the convoy they collared a week or two ago, somewhere in this neighbourhood."