The next day a force of Mounted Infantry chased the Boers, but these, later on, continued to hover in the neighbourhood of the line. Though General Knox was operating north of Kroonstad, and had attacked them at Rhenoster Kop, and driven them off with the loss of their cattle and waggons, these operations, and others which were going forward in all parts of the line, remained similar to the action of fanning away gnats--the pests receded merely to buzz elsewhere! As an instance of this, it was found that owing to the withdrawal of the garrison at Springs (an important coal centre on the East Rand) the Boers had buzzed back there, seized railway rolling stock, threatened the destruction of the mines, and generally made themselves offensive. A regiment was sent to retake the place. Meanwhile, at Waterval, they were giving trouble by treachery. A party having notified to the officer commanding there their intention to surrender, seized the occasion to attempt ambush and assassination. Fifteen of Strathcona's Horse approached the place of rendezvous--fortunately in extended order--and when within fifty yards of the house three native scouts were shot--two wounded, and one killed. That done, the sergeant was called on to surrender. "Never!" he shouted, and before he could gallop off a bullet had pierced his heart. A trooper was also wounded, and only discovered a day later by a patrol. Examples of Boer treachery were continually being reported, and one incident described by Reuter's correspondent served to show how regardless were the enemy of the sacred oath of neutrality, and what a farce was the administration of it. "A Boer ambulance sometime ago marched into our lines by error, thinking they were their own. The waggon was searched, and was found to contain a number of boxes of ammunition and seven burghers carrying arms. When the latter were searched, each was found to be carrying on him the oath of neutrality which he had subscribed in Bloemfontein." But little else could be expected of a nation fed on deceit. Lies hot from the Boer factory had continually been served out to the simple farmers, and were still being foisted on them with a view to stimulating their interest in further hostilities. At one time it was announced that Lord Roberts had committed suicide, at another that the plague was ravaging the British. Fabrications regarding American sympathy and intervention were many, and they asserted that both the commandants, De Wet and Botha, had indignantly refused the offer of bribes to surrender. Among the lesser and wilder tarradiddles was the statement that the first batch of Dublin Fusiliers who had been taken prisoners, had offered to join the Boers, but their sympathetic overtures had been declined! These fictions were swallowed greedily, and thus the "neutrals" were inveigled into having a new lunge at the British, which lunge they firmly believed might yet be effective.