The difficulties of the advance were now past, the country was almost level beyond the drift station, and in the distance was a low line of hills on which tall chimneys could be made out, the chimneys of the mines, which had brought such wealth, not only to those who worked them, but to the Transvaal, and which, owing to the greed and avarice of Kruger and his associates, had finally brought ruin upon the country. So far the resistance of the Boers had been feeble in the extreme. From one point after another, carefully prepared in every way, they had retreated with scarce a show of resistance, and although they might nerve themselves to fight one battle in defence of their capital, it was certain that Johannesburg, a far more important town, would fall into the hands of the invaders without an effort. Many of the Free State men had left the retreating forces of the Transvaal and remained in their own country. Although they had, through the malign influence of Steyn, thrown in their lot with their northern kindred, there had from the first been no real heartiness between the two sections, the Free State men declaring that they were sacrificed by the Transvaalers, that the whole brunt of the war had fallen upon them, that they were not consulted, and were treated rather as if they had been born servants of the Transvaalers than as men who had sacrificed everything for their sake. The Transvaal men, on the other hand, accused the burghers of the Free State of being half-hearted in the cause, of being backward in fighting, and not to be trusted, accusations which were certainly unfounded. The one desperate attempt for the capture of Ladysmith, had been made by the Free State men, who had fought with greater[Pg 355] courage and determination than the Transvaalers had ever done.
Their country had been made the theatre of war. It was their railways that had been destroyed, their property damaged, their farms burnt. They had been placed along the Modder to bear the brunt of the British fire, while the Transvaalers had been posted in a comparatively safe position on the British flank. They a civilized people, had been lorded over by one inferior to their foes in all respects except physical strength. It was small wonder that, seeing how all the assurances that they had received had been falsified, all their hopes disappointed, all their feelings outraged, they should have refused to go north to aid in the defence of the country, which had done so little to aid them. The wonder rather is, that they did not retire altogether from the contest and accept the inevitable, when further resistance could but bring ruin upon them.
Advancing from the Klip River on the 29th, General Ian Hamilton found the enemy in considerable force with guns on a range of hills to the west. The position being too strong for cavalry to attack alone, two brigades of infantry were sent to their assistance; and the Gordons and the City Imperial Volunteers with the greatest gallantry stormed the heights. The fighting of the Boers here showed how great was their demoralization, there was no such resistance as that offered by the men who held the kopjes of Belmont and Graspan. The Gordons had nearly a hundred casualties, but this was caused to some extent by their advancing in open order in line without a pause; while the City Imperial Volunteers, who were exposed to an equally heavy fire, advanced by rushes, the companies in the rear keeping up a heavy fire against the Boers on the sky-line, and so shaking the accuracy of their fire.
Had the Gordons used similar tactics they would probably have suffered much less than they did. While this action was going on on their left flank, Henry with the mounted[Pg 356] infantry moved straight upon Germiston, a point at which the lines from Natal and Johannesburg joined the main line to Pretoria. This junction lay among the great mounds of mine refuse; these were occupied by the Boers, and there was some sharp fighting, but the enemy were soon driven off in gallant fashion by the dismounted men. The feat was a daring one, as it was impossible to say how large a body of the enemy had been lying among the tips. The way being thus cleared, the main force advanced to Germiston.
The next day the 7th Division, with a brigade of cavalry and the mounted infantry, were established on the heights north of Johannesburg. Ian Hamilton's column was at Florida, three miles west of the town. French and Hutton lay between the two forces. During the day Dr. Krause, who had been left in temporary charge of Johannesburg, came out to the head-quarter camp and agreed to surrender the town on the following morning. Early on the 31st the formal surrender was made, and Lord Roberts entered the town at noon with two divisions. The union-jack was hoisted with the same ceremony as had accompanied its unfurling at Bloemfontein. Lord Roberts remained there but a short time, and then rode out to the suburb of Orange Grove, three miles to the north of the town, which was left in charge of Wavell's Brigade, while Mackenzie of the Seaforth Highlanders was appointed military governor.
Lord Roberts had now a serious decision to make. The departure of the main army to the north had emboldened the Boers of the Orange Free State to undertake operations at several points against the line of communications. The speed at which the army had advanced had rendered it impossible for stores sufficient for their needs to be pushed up along the single line of railway, and at the utmost only a day's consumption for the army could be brought up in twenty-four hours. The army was therefore literally living from hand to mouth, and the blowing up of a single important culvert or small bridge that would even for one day[Pg 357] arrest the transit of trains would have had the most serious consequences. Lord Roberts had therefore to decide whether to content himself for a short time with the capture of Johannesburg, until the safety of his communications was assured, and a supply for a further advance accumulated, or to push forward at once to Pretoria.
He chose the latter alternative. Delay would enable the Boers to recover from the demoralization which the complete failure of all their elaborate plans for checking the advance had brought about, to clear Pretoria of its stores, and above all to carry off the British prisoners, some four thousand in number, with them. The latter was a very serious consideration, as the possession of so large a number of prisoners might have been used by the Boers as a lever to extort more favourable terms than they could otherwise have looked for.
Yorke had ridden in with Lord Roberts's staff. As soon as the cheering that greeted the hoisting of the British flag had ceased, and the general was moving on, Yorke's eyes, as he looked round over the crowd, fell upon a group of familiar faces, and turning he rode up to them.
"You do not recognize me, Mr. Chambers?" he said, as he dismounted.
"Why, it is Harberton," the latter exclaimed. "No, we none of us recognized you, though we looked very narrowly at the mounted officers with the two divisions; but we did not think of seeing you on the general's staff. Besides, your uniform makes all the difference; you were a Dutch farmer, you know, when we saw you last. We are glad indeed to see you, as glad, I think, as to see the dear old flag hoisted."
While he was speaking Yorke had shaken hands with him, his wife and daughters. "Now, of course, you are coming to us," Mr. Chambers went on.
"I do not know what we are going to do at present, sir," Yorke replied; "I do not even know whether we shall stay in the town to-night. However, I will ask leave when the[Pg 358] day's work is over, and I hope to be able to join you this evening, by which time I shall know something of what the movements are likely to be."
"And of course, you will bring your two men with you?"
"With pleasure, sir. If I manage to come, they will certainly be able to do so."
"Then we may expect you anyhow this evening?"
"Certainly; I have no doubt at all about getting away."
Yorke remounted his horse and rode after the general. General Roberts's quick eye had noticed him ride up to the party; he turned round when Yorke rejoined the staff and motioned to him to come up to him.
"So you have found some friends, Harberton?"
"Yes, sir; they were Mr. Chambers and the family, the gentleman I was able to render some service to when his house was attacked."
"And I suppose he wanted you to go home with him?"
"He did ask me, sir, but of course I said that it was out of the question."
"I am going out to Orange Grove," the general went on, "and it will certainly be two or three days before we advance again. I don't know that I can do without your services altogether, Harberton, for there will be a good deal to be seen to, but I can certainly spare you now, and as long as I stay here it will be sufficient if you come at nine in the morning, and you will always be able to get away by five or six o'clock in the evening."
"Thank you very much indeed, sir."
And Yorke rode back to the square. His friends were just taking their place in their carriage when he arrived, and were much pleased when he told them what the general had said. "I will follow you at once, Mr. Chambers, when I have found Hans; he and the Kaffir will be just behind. There, I can see him now, with the other orderlies and spare horses."
He rode at once to the party. Hans was riding one of the[Pg 359] horses and the Kaffir was leading the other. "This way, Hans. We are to stop at Mr. Chambers's to-night; you know the way." The carriage had waited till he returned, and he rode by its side out to Parfontein.
"I thought you were on General Pole-Carew's staff, Mr. Harberton?"
"So I was, sir; but when Lord Roberts arrived the day after my return to camp, he took me as an extra aide-de-camp and interpreter, as Pole-Carew's Brigade was not coming on at the time."
"We were very anxious about you; but we had a letter from von Rensburg, telling' us cautiously that our friends had arrived there safely, and had gone on by train to Colesberg. In a second letter, he said that there had been a fray in that town, and from the description, he believed that you and your men were concerned in it; but whoever it was, they had got away. That was the last we heard."
"We did get off safely," Yorke said, "and made our way up to the Modder, and then went on with the general. Of course we were at Paardeberg and at the entry into Bloemfontein. Then I was sent up to Mafeking with the relieving column, with whom I entered the town. I started again that night with despatches, giving particulars as to the siege and our march. As you may imagine I did not let the grass grow under my feet, as I was most anxious to rejoin the army before it arrived here. It was a close thing, for I only overtook it at Klip River Station three days ago. You have had no more trouble here, I hope, sir?"
"None at all; we have not heard of the matter since. Not only were the three fellows here sent away, but we gave such information that those who got away in the carts were arrested in the course of the day and all five were together sent down to Portuguese territory, so that the mouths of all who knew anything of the gold here were effectually silenced."
"I am very glad to hear that, sir. I have all along feared[Pg 360] that the men who escaped might have got together another band and renewed the attempt."
"They would not have caught us napping again, for I arranged, as I told you I should do, for three of the engineers to sleep in the house. I had intended to move into the town; but when I found that all those fellows had been sent away, I had no longer any anxiety."
"Do you think there will be any more fighting before we get to Pretoria, sir?"
"There may be some fighting, but nothing serious. The Boers who came through the town in their retreat were perfectly disheartened; they abused their commanders, declared that they had been grossly deceived, and that it was of no use trying to stop the Rooineks, for that they would not attack them in the positions they had fortified, but went round at the sides, and they were obliged to retreat at once to save their guns and waggons."
By this time they arrived at the house.
"That is not the horse you rode when you were here," Mr. Chambers remarked as they alighted.
"No, sir; Mr. von Rensburg, when I started for Kimberley on my way to Mafeking, insisted on lending me this horse, as both of my own were worn out by the work they had had. It is a splendid animal, and has carried me nobly, as you may imagine when I tell you that, after a very rapid march from Kimberley to Mafeking, I started early the next morning and rode down to Boshof and then up to Kroonstad, a distance of over four hundred miles, in less than nine days. He said that I was to ask you to take care of it until there was an opportunity of sending it down to Bloemfontein, or until he came up here, which he was going to do as soon as the roads were open."
"That I will do willingly. I dare say I shall hear from him now that the line is open again, and it will be possible to send letters."
They now sat down to lunch, and after the meal Yorke[Pg 361] gave the details of his journey down, and of the struggle in the yard of the inn at Colesberg.
"That was a fortunate escape indeed," Mr. Chambers said, "and wonderfully well managed."
"I can't think how you do such things," Mrs. Chambers remarked. "You do not look more than eighteen, and yet you seem to be as cool and as quick in deciding what is best to be done as if you had been employed in dangerous work for many years."
"I don't think age makes much difference, Mrs. Chambers," Yorke laughed. "The games that one plays at school make one quick. A fellow sends down a ball at your wicket, and while it is on its way, which is not much above a second, you have to decide what to do with it, whether you will block it, or drive it, or cut it to leg. It is the same with football, and at boxing or single-stick you have to guard a blow and return it before, as one would imagine, you had time to think. In fact, you don't know yourself that you think. I should say that a fellow is quicker and cooler when he leaves school or college than he can be years afterwards, when he has altogether got out of the way of using his wits in a hurry."
After talking for an hour Yorke walked up with Mr. Chambers to the engine-houses.
"I hope we shall be getting to work soon," the latter said.
"I am afraid it will be some time before you do," Yorke replied. "The country is still in a very disturbed state all down the line, and one may almost say, as far as Cape Town; and I am afraid that it will be a long time before the Boers accept their defeat as final, and that they will carry on a partisan war for many months. It will be impossible to guard every foot of line for nearly a thousand miles, and it will be constantly cut. As they are all mounted, there will be no overtaking the raiding parties with infantry, and we have nothing like enough cavalry to police such an enormous extent of country. It will take a long time, I[Pg 362] should think many months, before we shall be able on the single line of railway to do more than feed the troops, and until all resistance is crushed out it does not seem to me to be possible for the fugitives to return."
"Well, we must wait as patiently as may be. I am glad to see, by the news that we have received through Loren?o Marques, that our shareholders in England have neither lost heart nor patience, and that the fall in the value of stocks and mines has been much smaller than might have been expected. I own that I have had great fears of late that the Boers would, when they saw matters going against them, smash up the machinery and blow up the mines as far as they could. There was great danger of it at one time, and indeed yesterday I feared the worst. The rabble of the town, encouraged by Judge Koch, seemed bent upon violence; Botha and his troops had retired, and there was no authority whatever to keep order. Dr. Krause did all he could, and when a mob, composed almost entirely of the lowest class of Irish and Germans, went out to the Robinson mine the prospect looked desperate. But Mr. Tucker, the manager, showed great tact and firmness; and he was well backed by Krause, who pointed out to the mob that if the British troops when they entered to-day found that the mines had been damaged, they would probably have the whole of the lower portion of the town burned, and every man who could not prove that he had taken no part in the affair, shot; and therefore, as there was everything to lose and nothing to gain by the destruction of the mines, it would be nothing short of madness for them to commit so useless a piece of mischief.
"Happily he succeeded, and the mob returned to the town, and there is nothing to prevent us from going to work again as soon as we can get hands. Of course the mine has been somewhat............