iterally
napping. Most of them were lying fast asleep in the bottom of the
trucks, with their unloaded carbines beside or under them, so that
not a solitary reply shot was fired as the trains sped past the point
of peril.

After repeated disasters of this kind had occurred, orders were issued
forbidding men to travel in such careless and unguarded fashion; while
all journeying that was not indispensible was peremptorily stopped! My
own contemplated visit to Pretoria next day was consequently postponed
till there came some more urgent call or some more convenient season.

On this part of the line the troops had often to be their own stokers
and drivers, with the result that sniping Boers were not the only
peril a passenger had to fear. From Dalmanutha in those delightsome
days a train was due to start as usual with one engine behind and one
in front. The driver of the leading engine blew his whistle and opened
his regulator. The driver of the back engine did the same, but somehow
the train refused to move. It was supposed the breaks were on, but it
was presently discovered that the rear engine had reversed its gear,
and there had thus commenced a tug of war--the one engine pulling its
hardest against the other and neither winning a prize. In those days
railway life became rich in comedies and tragedies, especially the
latter, whereof let one further illustration of much later date, as
described by Mr Burgess, suffice:--

[Sidenote: _Blowing up trains._]

At Heidelberg on Thursday, March 7th, at ten o'clock in the morning
there was a loud report as of a gun firing from one of the forts; but
it was soon known that it was an explosion of dynamite on the line
about a mile and a half from the railway station. The Boers had
evidently placed dynamite under the metals, and it is supposed that
while they were doing this, a number of them came down and engaged the
outposts, and that was the firing that was heard in the town. A flat
trolley with a European ganger and seven coolies and natives went over
the first mine without exploding it; but on reaching the second, about
a mile beyond, an explosion took place. The ganger after being blown
fifty feet, escaped most miraculously with only a few bruises. Sad to
relate three Indians were blown to pieces so as hardly to be
recognised, and two others were seriously hurt. Immediately after this
first explosion, a construction train left the Heidelberg railway
station, and exploded th