After leaving
Wolvehoek, we entered on Commandant De Wet's hunting-ground and the
scene of his recent exploits. There, at almost every culvert, at every
ganger's house, were pickets of soldiers, all gathered round a crackling
fire at that chill morning hour; and at every one of these posts freshly
constructed works of sandbags and deep trenches were in evidence to
denote that their sentry work was no play, but grim earnest.
We next crossed the Rhenoster Spruit, and passed the then famous
Rhenoster position, so formidable even to the unskilled eye, and where
my military friends told me the Boers would have given much trouble, had
it not been for the two outspread wings of the Commander-in-Chief's
army. A little farther on, the deviation line and the railway-bridge
were pointed out as one of the many triumphs of engineering skill to be
seen and marvelled at on that recently restored line. The achievements
of these lion-hearted engineers could not fail to impress themselves
even on a civilian. Many amongst them were volunteers, who had
previously occupied brilliant positions in the great mining community in
Johannesburg, and whose brains were the pride of a circle where
intellectual achievements and persevering resource commanded at once the
greatest respect and the highest remuneration.
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