Indeed the Boers, after their petty triumphs at Nitral's and Commando Neks, had continued so to cluster around Rustenburg, that towards the end of July General Baden-Powell was in danger of enduring the miseries of a second siege. The General prepared himself for all emergencies, and investigated all the Boer arrangements for bombardment which were in course of completion. Meanwhile he was aware that to his support Methuen, with a force of 6000 men, was approaching Olifant's Nek, and Colonel Plumer prepared himself to co-operate. Unluckily the synchronal arrangements were imperfect, and the result was that the passes which should have been blocked to the Boers were open, and their several forces succeeded in effecting a junction, and menacing not only Rustenburg and the Elands River Station, but the Krugersdorp-Potchefstroom railway line. Therefore Lord Methuen promptly retraced his steps, and by the 23rd of July, as we have seen, had moved back to Krugersdorp, leaving General Baden-Powell to rely on the wits that had hitherto stood him in such good stead. At this time Colonel Airey sent information to Rustenburg which promised to bring about the capture of Boers who were threatening a convoy that was expected from Mafeking, and accordingly reinforcements were sent out, but only to find that Colonel Airey's Australians had got into difficulties, and that the enemy, having killed six, wounded nineteen, and shot down their horses, were very much in the ascendant. The Colonials were fairly trapped, and surrender stared them in the face. Fortunately, at this juncture, Captain FitzClarence and the Protectorate Regiment galloped up, threatening the rear of the assailants, and forced them to make off with all possible speed. But from this date until at the beginning of August, when relief was sent from Pretoria, Rustenburg remained cut off from the outer world. General Ian Hamilton with the opening of August started towards the west on his way to Rustenburg to the rescue of General Baden-Powell's garrison. Near Vitbaal Nek he encountered some opposition, but skilfully brushed away the Dutchmen, losing in the fray two officers and five men wounded. He succeeded in turning the enemy entirely off the Magaliesberg Range, a feat which was mainly accomplished by the gallantry of the Berkshires and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The officers wounded were Lieutenant-Colonel Rhodes, Berkshire Regiment, and Major G. D. Williams. Thirty-nine men, twenty-six of whom belonged to the Berkshires, were also injured. Their wounds were mostly of a serious nature, as the seventeen prisoners who were taken, owned to the fact that they had had soft-nosed bullets served out to them and used them.