The Petticoat Commando | Page 7

enemy the next

morning. Once more they expressed their determination to escape to the
Boer lines, wherever they might be.
Only a few hours' rest for them that night and then they rode away at
dawn, in the Middelburg direction, on that dark and dreadful June 5th.
It was Fritz's twenty-second birthday on that cruel mid-winter's morn,
and when Hansie saw him again he was a man of twenty-six, with the
experiences and suffering of a lifetime resting on his shoulders.
The fate of the two young men remained a mystery to their dear ones
for many months of agonising suspense, and they pass out of these
pages for a time while we turn our attention to the relation of events
within the capital.
CHAPTER II
HOW THE MINES WERE SAVED
Before we begin relating the events with which this book is actually
concerned, and which took place, as we have said in the previous
chapter, exclusively in and around the capital, I must ask my reader to
turn his attention for a few moments to that great mining centre,
Johannesburg, "The Golden City" of South Africa.
If it was hated by the Boers before the war as the cause of all the unrest
in their beloved country, the unwelcome revolution in the calm
simplicity of their hitherto peaceful life, it is not to be wondered at that
their hatred and resentment had been intensified by the way in which
the war was brought about.
This feeling had risen to its height of concentrated fury when it became
known to the burghers that the sweeping advance of the British forces
in overwhelming numbers would soon make it possible for the English
to take full possession of those coveted mines.
At the time of the Republican successes there had been no suggestion
that it would be politic to destroy the mines, but as reverses became

more frequent, and it became evident beyond a doubt that the British
troops were about to cross the Vaal, a strong section of the Government,
supported by popular feeling, openly advocated the destruction of the
mines as well as the town of Johannesburg. The precedent quoted for
such a course was the burning of Moscow by the Russians, in order to
retard the victorious advance of Napoleon.
Very soon it became apparent that the members of the Government
who were advocating this policy were gaining the upper hand, as
instructions were actually given to certain officials of the Mines
Department to make the necessary arrangements for blowing up the
mines. Another section of the Government, among whom were General
Louis Botha and Dr. F.E.T. Krause, strenuously opposed the carrying
out of this policy.
This section eventually gained the upper hand at the time when
Commandant Schutte was compelled to relinquish the position of
Special Commandant for the Rand, and Dr. Krause was appointed in
his stead, although the circumstances leading to this change had at first
in some measure strengthened those who advocated destroying the
mines. The change was brought about in consequence of the terrible
explosion at Begbie's Engineering Works, which had been converted
into a bomb factory by the Government, and where several persons
were killed and many injured.
The cause of this explosion after investigation was alleged to have been
the work of British spies, and it was only natural that those persons
advocating the destruction of the mines should avail themselves of this
circumstance to further their scheme, but the bold and determined
opposition of Dr. Krause, supported as he was by the mines police, a
special body of men organised for the purpose of protecting the mines,
had the effect of inducing the "Destroyers" to mature their scheme in
secret.
The probable fate of the mines was openly and freely discussed in the
capital, and I have a faint recollection of a debating society having
taken for its subject, at this time, the question, "Would the result of
blowing up the mines be beneficial or detrimental to the Boer cause?"

Many were the pros and cons, and what conclusion was arrived at I do
not know.
At Harmony, mother and daughter followed the subject with the
keenest interest and anxiety, realising the important effect which the
destruction of the mines would have on the later development of the
war.
There were several weighty considerations which the "Destroyers," in
their thirst for revenge, seemed to have overlooked entirely.
In the first place, the blowing up of the mines would have failed in its
object of punishing the mining magnates against whom the resentment
of the Republicans was specially directed, and the chief sufferers would
be innocent shareholders in every part of the world, members of the
middle-classes who had invested their little all in the fabulously rich
gold mines of the Rand. Another very important