Train-wrecking continued, and of necessity the running of night trains had to be suspended. Some of the raiders began to drive over the less known drifts of the Orange and disappear, while certain rebels contrived to hide themselves in the mountain fastnesses so as to escape both the Boer bands and the British pursuit. On the 30th of March a skirmish took place between some of Henniker's troops (Victorian Bushmen) and a large force of Boers, during which the Colonials again showed their tenacity and grit. An advanced party of four only, under a splendid fellow, Sergeant Sandford, were set upon by the foe in the vicinity of Zuurberg. The enemy succeeded in wounding a Bushman, who fell beneath his dead horse, and was there pinned. His companions, under a perpetual sleet from the marauders' Mausers, with great coolness engaged in the immensely difficult task of moving the dead animal and drawing out their comrade from his perilous position. They then managed to mount the rescued man on Sergeant Sandford's horse and all got away in safety. Reinforcements arriving now frightened off the Boers, who had lost four of their number. * * * * * On the whole, things were progressing wonderfully. At the headquarters of General Baden-Powell's Constabulary at Modderfontein 2000 more recruits were now expected to join the 1000 already on duty there. Australian and Canadian drafts were to follow. The clerical staff of the Rand Mines' Corporation was about to proceed from the Cape to Johannesburg, a sure sign of approaching settlement. A warning to colonists was soon published stating that acts of rebellion committed after April 12 would not be tried under the Special Tribunals Act of last session, but by the old common law, the penalties under which include capital punishment or any term of imprisonment or fine which an ordinary court may impose. On the 6th of April a post, ten miles north of Aberdeen, consisting of one hundred men of the 5th Lancers, thirty-two Imperial Yeomanry under Captain Bretherton, and Brabant's Horse, was assailed by a horde of 400 Boers. After fighting vigorously from dawn till 11 A.M. the force was overpowered. Twenty-five of the number only escaped--one was killed and six were wounded. On the 11th, Colonel Byng surprised a laager near Smithfield, captured thirteen tatterdemalions, who were not loth to rest, and some horses and stores. Colonel Haig, on the 12th, reached Rosmead and took command of all the columns operating in the midlands, and he soon began the hunting of Scheepers' and Malan's commandos with his flying columns. According to Reuter's correspondent, the Boer forces in the midlands at this date comprised Scheepers, with 180 men, in the Sneeuwberg; Malan, with forty men, reported to be breaking northward; Swanepoel, with sixty men, near New Bethseda; and Fouché, with a force estimated variously at several hundreds, in the Zuurberg.